Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle says he was responsible for tip-off to police that led to Mandelson being arrested
Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, has revealed that he was the person who told the police that he had heard Peter Mandelson was planning to leave the country. Mandelson says this tip-off, which he says was wrong, led to him being arrested by the police, rather than being allowed to attend an interview voluntarily.
Mandelson told friends that the tip-off to the police had come from the lord speaker, Hoyle’s opposite number in the Lords, Michael Forsyth.
Hoyle told MPs today:
double quotation markMembers will be aware of comments in the media regarding the arrest of Lord Mandelson.
To prevent any inaccurate speculation, I’d like to confirm that upon receipt of information, that I felt it was relevant I pass this on to the Metropolitan police in good faith, as is my duty and responsibility.
It is regrettable this rapidly ended in the media. As this is a live investigation, members will understand … it would not be appropriate to make any further comment, and I’d like to caution members from doing so.
Updated at 06.52 EST
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No 10 declines to say when changes to student loan system might be announced
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, the PM’s spokersperson declined to say when the government might be announcing changes to the student loan system. (See 12.07pm.) “I won’t get ahead of the spring statement,” he said, when asked if there might be an announcement in the statement, which is next week.
He said work on this was continuing, but declined to give any more details or a timeframe, saying “we’ll update when we have one”.
According to ITV’s Robert Peston, Peter Mandelson is adamant that he and his lawyers were told by the police that the lord speaker was the person who tipped them off about Mandelson being a flight risk, not the Commons speaker – who has admitted being the source (see 11.49am). Peston thinks there was simple misunderstanding. He says:
double quotation markA source close to Mandelson says “police were emphatic it was the Lords’ speaker” and his “lawyers checked specifically”.
Presumably the arresting officers were told the tip-off came from “the speaker” and assumed it must be the Lords because Mandelson was a lord.
SharePMQs – snap verdict
One of the rules of PMQs is that there is a correlation between the quality of the exchanges here (never high at the best of times) and at the imminence of an election. With the polling booths about to open, the crude sloganising gets even more extreme. Today was a good example.
Kemi Badenoch started quite well. At the weekend she announced a plan to cut the interest graduates pay on their student loans. She was responding to increasing media interest in student loans in recent weeks (triggered by the freeze in the loan repayment threshold coming into force in April). But ministers have noticed this too, and they are already looking at the issue, as Will Hazell explains in a story in the i today which includes this wonderful quote.
double quotation markOne source with knowledge of discussions said that Treasury officials were “beavering away trying to work out if there is a different combination of the interest rate and the threshold level that makes increasingly influential young graduates stop shouting at them”.
Badenoch got Starmer to concede that the government is considering changing the loan rules. She taunted him quite effectively over Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, saying before the general election “graduates, you will pay less under a Labour government.” And she was a bit more explicit than she has been in the past about disowning the policy failures of the past government. (See 12.14pm.) But her “paedo protection party” jibe was crude and excessive, and towards the end she had lapsed into low-grade insults. Another problem was that, in exchanges that were relatively routine and unmemorable, Starmer had the best line; this came when he responded to her boast about Tory MPs being under new leadership by making the point that some of them were – because they now have Nigel Farage as their boss.
Towards the end Starmer described Badenoch as “utterly irrelevant”. In some respects that is just regular abuse but, as the Gorton and Denton byelecton illustrates (see 9.11am), two-party politics in the UK has been upended and increasingly that sounds like a structural complaint about the way PMQs is organised.
All the focus is on the Starmer/Badenoch exchanges because she is the only MP who gets six questions. But today it was obvious that Starmer couldn’t wait to finish with Badenoch because he wanted to move on to what mattered to him much more, which was blasting Reform UK and the Greens – a particular concern because of the byelection, but also a fundmental Labour party strategic priority.
Updated at 09.07 EST
This is from Matt Goodwin, the Reform UK candidate in Gorton and Denton, responding to what Keir Starmer said about him at PMQs.
double quotation markI see Keir Starmer is attacking me at PMQs for being “divisive”
A reminder
This by-election is being held because Keir Starmer’s MP slagged off the good people of Gorton & Denton and even joked about pensioners dying
Vote Reform
Get Starmer Out
Put Gorton & Denton First
Calvin Bailey (Lab) say the Greens want to break up Nato. Does the PM agree that they are betraying our security and “becoming Putin’s useful idiots”.
Starmer says the Greens want to pull out of Nato, and negotiate the nuclear deterrent with Putin. And Reform have a former leader in Wales who took Russian bribe. He says Reform and the Greens are both “weak on Nato and soft on Putin”.
Roger Gale (Con) says he asked the PM some months ago why, as DPP, he did not bring charges against Mohamed Al Fayed for rape. He says two dossiers were submitted to the CPS. When will people be charged for helping Fayd.
Starmer says hundreds of thousands of files go in to the CPS every year. He says he does not know when charging decisions will be taken.
Stephen Gethins (SNP) urges Starmer to campaign in Scotland on the government’s record.
Starmer says the SNP used to sit in the third party benches until the 2024. But they don’t now, because they lost so many seats.
Robbie Moore (Con) asks about a Labour councillor in Keighley who he says was responsible for a horrific assault.
Starmer says he will look into this straight away and give Moore an answer
Irene Campbell (Lab) asks about phasing out the use of animals for medical research. She says alternative research methods are increasingly available. She asks for an immediate ban on the use of dogs in these experiments.
Starmer says the government has a strategy to encourage the use of alternative methods.
Adam Dance (Lib Dem) says there has been a 250% increase in potholes in Somerset. He asks for fairer funding for rural areas so they can maintain their roads.
Starmer says the government wants to fix the crumbing roads it inherited from the Tories.
Imran Hussain (Lab) says the incident at Manchester Central mosque, where armed people entered last night, shows attacks on the Muslim community are becoming more frequent. He attacks “that lot over there”, apparently referrring to Reform UK, and says politicians and the media should stop flaming hate against Muslims.
Starmer says he agrees on the need not to relent in the fight against anti-Muslim hatred.
Paul Kohler (Lib Dem) calls for an inquiry into the sexual offences of Mohamed Al Fayed. He says that is the UK equivalent of Epstein.
Starmer says these offences must be propery investigated.
In response to a question from John Slinger (Lab), Starmer condemns the Green party’s policy on legalising drugs. That would lead to drug use “running rife”. He says, as the father of a 17-year-old, he finds the idea that in a few months’ time, when he turns 18, his son could be sold heroin “disgusting”.
Nigel Farage goes next, and he asks about the Chagos Islands.
Starmer says Farage “has neither the decency or the backbone” to condemn the death threat to an MP, and to sack the individual responsible. That shows Reform are just offering “grievance and division”. He says Matt Goodwin, the Reform candidate in Gorton and Denton, says people who are not white cannot be British. He urges voters to reject Goodwin.
UPDATE: Farage said:
double quotation markFor a government that is full of human rights lawyers, within and without, why do the opinions and human rights of indigenous Chagossians not matter to him at all?
And Starmer said:
double quotation mark[Farage] has neither the decency nor the backbone to condemn a death threat to a member of this house, whichever party they are in. He doesn’t have the decency or the backbone to condemn it or to sack the individual.
Updated at 09.05 EST
Fleur Anderson (Lab) asks if the government will protect the Equality Act.
Starmer says he is proud of the act. Reform UK want to rip it up, he says. They would take away the rights of workers. And it would even remove rights from bereaved parents.
And he says Reform UK must also condemn the Reform UK councillor who posted a message repeated a death threat to an MP. The councillor should be sacked.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says Gordon Brown has highlighted how Jeffrey Epstein used UK airports to traffick women. He says he agrees there should be an inquiry. Does he agree flight logs should be released?
Starmer says the police inquiry must be allowed to conclude first.
Davey asks about William Blake house, a care home for adults with profound disability. It faces closure because a manager embezzled money. He says the families involved have put forward a rescue plan. Will the PM back that?
Starmer says he will organise a meeting on this.
UPDATE: Davey was referring to this story by Patrick Butler.
Updated at 08.48 EST
Starmer says next wave of Pride in Place funding will focus on smaller areas
Luke Akehurst (Lab) asks about the Pride in Place programme. He asks the government to consider an additonal wave for Pride in Place funding to help smaller deprived places.
Starmer says the next wave will invest in 169 places, focusing on smaller areas affected by deprivation.
Badenoch says youth unemployment is at its highest rate for year. Starmer is not governing because he cannot take decisions. She says the government is “useless”.
Starmer says Badenoch has shown why she is “utterly irrelevant”. All she does is carp from the sidelines, and talk the economy down, she says.
Badenoch says Starmer is doing nothing to help students. Starmer has 411 MPs and they have no imagination. She asks if Starmer will make another U-turn to fix the student loan system.
Starmer says interest rates are down and inflation is down.
Businesses have welcomes Labour’s plan, he says.
He says the Tories’ plan is “miserable”.