Starmer accused of ‘sycophantic’ tone towards Chinese as Yang Tengbo denies being a spy – UK politics live

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said he was grateful to the government for arranging a security briefing for him on this story earlier today.

He urged the government to implement FIRS quickly.

And he called for a rethink in its China policy.

Given what we’ve learned and what we know, these very close relations that the prime minister is apparently attempting may not be wise, and the rather sycophantic tone the prime minister took with President Xi at the G20 a few weeks ago may not be very wise in light of what we now.

Jarvis said he did not agree with this assessment. Referring to what happened when David Cameron was prime minister, and he hosted President Xi during his visit to the UK, Jarvis said:

At least [Keir Starmer] least he did not take him to the pub for a pint.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who tabled the UQ, said that there are 40,000 people working for the Chinese United Front Work Department. They have penetrated every sector of the economy, he says.

He urged the government to put China in the enhanced sphere for FIRS (ie, to subject to to extra checks, because of the higher risk it poses). He said Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, has said the last government was about to put China on the list in this category.

And he said the UK was buying solar panels from China made with slave labour. “Far from challenging China on human rights, it now appears we are turning a blind eye to them,” he said.

In response, Dan Jarvis, the Home Office minister, said FIRS was not ready to go live when Labour took office. He said the plans were “not sufficiently robust”.

As for whether China would be included in the enhanced sphere, he said the Home Office would be setting out its approach to using this sphere in due course.

Dan Jarvis, a Home Office minister, is responding. He says the government is glad that the Home Office’s decision to exclude Yang Tengbo in this case was upheld by the courts.

He says the head of MI5 has said the UK is facing the most complex threat environment he has ever seen.

The National Security Act is essential, he says. He says six people have already been charged under the Act.

And, on China, he says the government’s position is to challenge where it must, compete where it has to, and cooperate where it can.

He says the details of the foreign influence registration scheme (FIRS) will be set out in the new year, and the scheme will come operational in the summer, he says.

Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says the Commons starts court sub judice rules. It is important that MPs do not subvert what courts have to decide, he says.

He says a court has decided to lift the anonymity ruling in the case of the alleged Chinese spy.

He also says MPs are only allowed to criticise the conduct of members of the royal family when they are debating a substantive motion covering that. That is not the case this afternoon, he says.

Badenoch says replacing most taxes with flat tax ‘very attractive’ in principle – but currently unaffordable

Helena Horton

Kemi Badenoch has said that she finds the idea of introducing a flat tax “very attractive” in principle – but unaffordable at present.

She made the comment in response to a question at the event this afternoon organised for groups campaigning about the extension of inhertance tax to farms. Asked by a business owner if she would consider getting rid of most taxes and replacing them with a flat tax, a single rate of income tax for everyone, she replied:

This is an idea that I’ve heard many times. It’s very attractive, but if we’re going to get to that sort of scenario, there’s a lot of work we need to do first hand.

At the moment, we are a welfare state with a little bit of a productivity attached to it. We’ve got to turn that around.

We cannot afford flat taxes where we are now. We need to make sure we rewire our economy so that we can lighten the burden of tax and the regulation on individuals and on those businesses that are just starting out, in particular.

People see the businesses that close. They don’t see the businesses that never started in the first place.

Tory rightwingers have long been attracted by the idea of a flat tax. When Liz Truss was preparing to take over as prime minister, Jacob Rees Mogg urged her to get rid of all direct taxes and replace them with a flat rate of income tax, set at 20p in the pound. He was inspired by the version in Estonia and he claimed it would cost £41bn. Truss reportedly described this as a “great idea”, but even she drew the line at implementing.

As well as cost, another disadvantage with flat taxes is that they do not allow scope for exemptions – like the one farmers have enjoyed from inheritance tax.

In her speech this afternoon Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, said that, as well as extending the number of mayoral authorities, she would be given them “unprecedented new powers”. Here is the passage from the speech where she explained what those powers would be.

Too often, mayors hands are tied by Whitehall … So we will create a clear and transparent route for all mayoral combined authorities to receive an integrated settlement.

This means moving resources between projects that matches what the people need.

We will give mayors new powers over strategic planning and new call-in powers so that they can build the homes we need and plan for growth on a larger scale.

And we will get mayors working more closely with Homes England to unlock new homes.

The most mature areas will be able to set the strategic direction of any future affordable homes programme.

We will devolve future funding to support regeneration and housing delivery, and we will consolidate adult skills funding, introducing joint ownership of the local skills improvement plan and new routes to influence 16 to 19 provision.

And we will devote funding to support economically inactive people into work, and funding for retrofit will be included in the integrated settlements by the end of the parliament.

We will also create a statutory role for mayors in governing the rail network, with a right to request on rail devolution.

This all means easier commutes, across more joined-up transport links, new homes properly connected to local infrastructure and skills provision that matches local job opportunities.

And this is how she summed up the plans.

We have an economy that hoards potential and a politics that hoards power. So our devolution revolution will deliver the greatest transfer of power from Whitehall to our communities in a generation, empowering those communities to realise their potential.

No other government has been this ambitious about devolution, a mission that binds all departments across government, a long-term mission over generations rather than a short-term fix.