What are the key problems in Rishi Sunak’s in-tray as MPs return to Westminster?

Published

2 years ago

September 4, 2023

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Rishi Sunak will be under increased pressure as MPs return to Westminster on Monday after their summer recess.

The prime minister has been accused of presiding over a “zombie parliament” – not just by Labour, as would be expected, but in a parting shot by Nadine Dorries, who has finally vacated her seat of Mid Bedfordshire – triggering another by-election in a safe Tory seat.

It comes as a new crisis has unfolded in England’s schools, with more than 100 being told they would either be forced to shut or partially close over fears about the type of concrete used in their buildings.

On top of that, Saturday saw the highest number of migrant Channel crossings so far this year.

The timing could not be worse for Mr Sunak, whose director of communications, Amber de Botton, resigned on Friday after less than a year in the role and with a general election looming around the corner.

The prime minister is under more pressure to make progress on his five pledges or else risk his backbenchers becoming increasingly agitated.

He faces pressure, too, from the opposition benches, with Labour accusing the government of being “unable to deliver its own agenda”.

The government’s Online Safety Bill had been “drastically watered down”, according to the opposition, who accused the prime minister of being “too weak” to pass the original legislation.

Labour says several pledges including reform of the Mental Health Act and of the audit system could be left out of the upcoming King’s Speech entirely.

Here, Sky News takes a look at the key problems in the prime minister’s in-tray.

Concrete crisis

After years of disruption caused by the COVID pandemic and more recently teacher strikes, parents are braced for yet more home-schooling after the Department for Education announced more than 100 schools would either have to close or partially close due to the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, known as RAAC.

Around 104 schools or “settings” will be disrupted on top of 50 that have already been affected this year.

The department said the vast majority of schools and colleges “will be unaffected” – but Labour criticised the move as a “staggering display of Tory incompetence”.

And in an interview on Sky News’ new politics show, Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt admitted more schools and other public buildings with structural problems could come to light as the government carries out its “exhaustive” programme into the problem.

“Obviously we might find new information in the weeks or months ahead and we will act on it, but in terms of the information we have today we have acted immediately, we will continue to act, we will continue to invest,” he said.

Record boat numbers

One of Mr Sunak’s five pledges – to stop migrant boat crossings in the Channel – is also under serious doubt after a summer of setbacks.

The prime minister has already had to contend with the fact that more than 100,000 people have made the crossing since records began in 2018 – a milestone he certainly does not want to be associated with.

A bad situation was made worse when the latest round of Home Office figures showed 872 people were detected crossing the Channel in small boats yesterday – the highest number on a single day so far this year.

The Saturday figure has taken the total to arrive so far this year to 20,973.

It prompted Labour to accuse Mr Sunak of having “badly broken his promise on small boats”.

Rising cost of living

The most consistent problem Mr Sunak has had to contend with is the cost of living crisis, where high inflation is eroding people’s pay packets.

Mr Sunak has pledged to halve inflation, which currently stands at 6.8%, by the end of the year – which some in his party feel has made him a hostage to fortune.

While the government has been buoyed by figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which showed the UK’s economy was 0.6% larger than pre-pandemic levels by the fourth quarter of 2021, there are no signs yet the pressure has eased up on people’s pockets.

Energy watchdog Ofgem has warned that while the energy price cap is going to fall in October, families are “absolutely going to struggle” with their bills this winter as its boss urged the government to bring back support for families.

A typical household paying by direct debit for gas and electricity will face an annual charge of £1,923 from October to December, a fall of about £150.

Despite that, millions of households could end up paying more because government support with bills – worth £66 a month – has now been withdrawn.

Reflecting the tough economic situation is the fact that junior doctors and consultants have agreed to go on strike for the first time in NHS over four days across September and October – coinciding with Mr Sunak’s first Tory conference as leader and prime minister.

Tata talks

Sky News revealed this week the government is in advanced talks with Britain’s biggest steel producer to hand over a £500m aid package aimed at securing the long-term future of steelmaking in South Wales.

Whitehall officials and Tata Steel are close to agreeing a deal that would commit more than £1bn to the future of its Port Talbot steelworks – but which could ultimately result in thousands of job losses.

Under the plans currently envisaged, the government would commit approximately £500m of public funding to the company, while Tata Steel’s Indian parent would sign off £700m of capital expenditure over a multi-year period.

Port Talbot employs about 4,000 people – roughly half of Tata Steel’s overall UK workforce of approximately 8,000.

Industry sources close to the discussions said the company had indicated that over the long term, as many as 3,000 of its British-based staff were likely to lose their jobs.

Mr Hunt was challenged about the package by Trevor Phillips on Sunday, who asked whether the government was propping up an industry the government knows can’t compete with China.

Mr Hunt hit back by arguing the UK “can certainly compete with China”.

He said: “We are the world’s second-largest colleagues offshore wind producer and when it comes to high-end manufacturing, as opposed to the very low-cost manufacturing, we have four of the world’s top 10 universities, amazing research and development happening here.

“And we have a British economy that is a global leader when it comes to life sciences, technology or arts manufacturing.”

Politics

Make ‘significant adjustments’ to Online Safety Act, X urges govt

Published

2 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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X criticises Online Safety Act - and warns it's putting free speech in the UK at risk

The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk’s social network X has warned.

New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X – as well as sites hosting pornography – to bring in measures to prove that someone using them is over the age of 18.

The Online Safety Act requires sites to protect children and to remove illegal content, but critics have said that the rules have been implemented too broadly, resulting in the censorship of legal content.

X has warned the act’s laudable intentions were “at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach”.

It said: “When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety’.

“It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made.”

X claims the timetable for platforms to meet mandatory measures had been unnecessarily tight – and despite complying, sites still faced threats of enforcement and fines, “encouraging over-censorship”.

“A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It’s safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK,” it said.

A UK government spokesperson said it is “demonstrably false” that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech.

“As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression,” they added.

Users have complained about age checks that require personal data to be uploaded to access sites that show pornography, and 468,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the new law to be repealed.

In response to the petition, the government said it had “no plans” to reverse the Online Safety Act.

Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to “state suppression of genuine free speech” and said his party would ditch the regulations.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the act were “on the side of predators” – to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle’s comments “absolutely disgusting”.

Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into how four companies – that collectively run 34 pornography sites – are complying with new age-check requirements.

These companies – 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd – run dozens of sites, and collectively have more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, the internet watchdog said.

The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers.

It adds to the 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, as well as an unnamed online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, and two adult websites.

Ofcom said it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.

Politics

Inside Jeremy Corbyn’s new party and the battle for leadership

Published

4 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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Inside Jeremy Corbyn's new party and the battle for leadership

Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn may be the figureheads of a new left-wing party, but already there is a battle over leadership.

The confusion behind the initial launch speaks to a wider debate happening behind closed doors as to who should steer the party – now and in the future.

Already, in the true spirit of Mr Corbyn’s politics, there is talk of an open leadership contest and grassroots participation.

Some supporters of the new party – which is being temporarily called “Your Party” while a formal name is decided by members – believe that allowing a leadership contest to take place honours Mr Corbyn’s commitment to open democracy.

They point out that under Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, members famously backed plans to make it easier for local constituency parties to deselect sitting MPs – a concept he strongly believed in.

His allies now say the former Labour leader, who is 76, is open to there being a leadership contest for the new party, possibly at its inaugural conference in the autumn, where names lesser known than himself can throw their hat into the ring.

“Jeremy would rather die than not have an open leadership contest,” one source familiar with the internal politics told Sky News.

However, there have been suggestions that Ms Sultana appears to be less keen on the idea of a leadership contest, and that she is more committed to the co-leadership model than her political partner.

Those who have been opposed to the co-leadership model believe it could give Ms Sultana an unfair advantage and exclude other potential candidates from standing in the future.

One source told Sky News they believed Mr Corbyn should lead the party for two years, to get it established, before others are allowed to stand as leader.

They said Ms Sultana, who became an independent MP after she was suspended from Labour for opposing the two-child benefit cap, was “highly ambitious but completely untested as leader” and “had a lot of growing into the role to do”.

“It’s not about her – it’s about taking a democratic approach, which is what we’re supposed to be doing,” they said.

“There are so many people who have done amazing things locally and they need to have a chance to emerge as leaders.

“We are not only fishing from a pool of two people.

“It needs to be an open contest. Nobody needs to be crowned.”

While Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana undoubtedly have the biggest profiles out of would-be leaders, advocates for a grassroots approach to the leadership point to the success some independent candidates have enjoyed at a local level – for example, 24-year-old British Palestinian Leah Mohammed, who came within 528 votes of unseating Health Secretary Wes Streeting in Ilford North.

Fiona Lali of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who stood in last year’s general election for the Stratford and Bow constituency, has also been mentioned in some circles as someone with potential leadership credentials.

However, sources close to Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana downplayed suggestions of any divide over the leadership model, pointing out that their joint statement acknowledged that members would “decide the party’s direction” at the inaugural conference in the autumn, including the model of leadership and the policies that are needed to transform society.

A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn told Sky News: “Jeremy will be working with Zarah, his independent colleagues, and people from trade unions and social movements up and down the country to make an autumn conference a reality.

“This will be the moment where people come together to launch a new democratic party that belongs to the members.”

Sky News has approached Ms Sultana for comment.

Politics

DeFi Education Fund urges Senate to strengthen crypto dev protections in draft bill

Published

6 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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DeFi Education Fund urges Senate to strengthen crypto dev protections in draft bill

DeFi Education Fund called on the Senate Banking Committee to frame a key crypto market bill in a more tech-neutral way and strengthen crypto developer protections in a recent letter.