Badenoch accuses Starmer of exploiting Brianna Ghey tragedy after Sunak makes trans jibe during PMQs – as it happened

• Keir Starmer has angrily confronted Rishi Sunak in the Commons as the prime minister derided Labour’s policy on transgender rights after being told that the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey was watching from the public gallery. Downing Street has rejected calls for an apology. And Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary and minister for women and equalities, has hit back, accusing Starmer of exploiting the Ghey tragedy for political gain. (See 3.25pm.)

• Labour’s pledge to insulate 19m homes in a decade has been thrown into doubt after the party confirmed it would not spend £6bn a year allocated for the scheme if its fiscal rules did not allow, while the government claimed it would cost twice that.

• Rishi Sunak has been accused of making a U-turn on his pledge to restore NHS dentistry as experts say his “recovery plan” does not offer enough money to incentivise dentists to take on extra NHS patients.

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This morning CCHQ put out a statement from Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, highlight a Treasury analysis of Labour’s plan to insulate 19m homes in a decade saying this would cost double the £bn a year claimed. “This official costing shows that a key plank of Labour’s policy costs double what they have claimed,” he said.

But the £13bn a year price tag attached to the policy by the Treasury and CCHQ has been dismissed by Labour (see 11.53am) and by experts (see 1.44pm), and now even Hunt does not seem quite so willing to defend the figure.

When it was put to him by ITV’s Robert Peston in an interview that the £13bn figure was “implausible”, because it made assumptions such as full subsidies for wealthy families, Hunt replied: “Even if it’s not double the £6bn, it is still a very big chunk of a £28bn pound spending spree.”

The Conservative MP Dehenna Davison has said it was “disappointing” to hear Rishi Sunak make a joke in the Commons today at the expense of trans peope. She posted this on X.

Wasn’t in Parliament today thanks to a migraine attack so have just caught up on PMQs.

The debate around trans issues often gets inflamed at the fringes. As politicians, it’s our job to take the heat out of such debates and focus on finding sensible ways forward, whilst ensuring those involved are treated with respect. Given some of the terrible incidences of transphobia we have seen lately, this need for respect feels more crucial than ever.

That’s why it was disappointing to hear jokes being made at the trans community’s expense. Our words in the House resonate right across our society, and we all need to remember that.

Jeremy Hunt has rejected claims that Rishi Sunak was making a joke at the expense of trans people at PMQs.

In an interview with the BBC’s Chris Mason, the chancellor said that Sunak was making a point about Keir Starmer repeatedly changing his mind and that the PM stressed his admiration for Esther Ghey, whose daughter Brianna was murdered in an attack partly motivated by transphobia. Hunt said:

What [Sunak] was saying is that for the really important issues of the day Labour and Sir Keir Starmer simply cannot make up his mind. He said when it comes to trans issues, economic issues, like £28bn a year, Labour changes its position by the day. His point was that if a political party that wants to govern this country can’t make up its mind on really important issues including how they would run the economy then they risk losing the progress we have made which would take us back to square one.

When Mason put it to Hunt that Sunak “used a line about trans people as a political punchline in the presence of a grieving mother”, Hunt replied:

Chris, that is not what happened and you know that …What he was saying was that Keir Starmer cannot make up his mind up about the big issues of the day.

During PMQs Sunak said: “I think I counted almost 30 [Starmer U-turns] in the last year: pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman – although in fairness that was only 99% of a U-turn.” This was a reference to an interview Starmer gave last year in which he said 99.9% of women did not have a penis.

At the time interviewers from some outlets were routinely asking Labour politicians if a woman could have a penis because often MPs like Starmer found it hard to give an answer acceptable to trans activists that did not attract derision from the right.

Tory politicians generally did not get asked the same question because they were happy to say no – even though technically that is the wrong answer because, as Starmer was alluding to, a gender recognition law that has been in force for 20 years does allow people to change gender without the need for surgery.

Kemi Badenoch comes top in surveys asking Conservative party members which cabinet ministers they admire the most, and she is currently favourite to be the next Tory leader. There are two reasons for this, both of which are perfectly illustrated by her intervention in the row about Rishi Sunak’s anti-trans jibe today. (See 3.25pm.)

First, she has strong, rightwing views, particularly on matters of race and gender, that are in tune with what Tory members think, and she is not afraid to state them. Second, and more importantly, she relishes having a fight over them with her opponents. There is no one in the Conservative party who can bait the left with such audacity. The only possible exceptions might be Michael Gove and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, but they seem to care about politeness. Badenoch definitely doesn’t.

We’ve got a headline on the blog now about Badenoch’s intervention, but a more accurate one might be: “Badenoch sees fire, grabs can of petrol, and throws.” Despite her professed desire to “take the heat out of the debate on LGBT issues”, these are not comments intended to calm things down.

There are four other points worth making.

1) Badenoch appears to be defending Sunak, without actually doing so. By trying to make this an argument about Keir Starmer’s comments, not Sunak’s, she is giving him some useful political cover. But she does not say he was right to make the joke he did, and her comments about the need for tact and understanding imply she would not have been so crass.

2) Tory activists will like the claim that it is Labour that is weaponising the issue – even though it is not true. Starmer is not especially keen to talk about trans issues, and last year Labour tried to play down a U-turn on self-identification for people using the Gender Recognition Act. It is Tory politicians who are most exploiting this issue. Shortly before being appointed deputy Tory chair last year,, Lee Anderson said the party should fight the next election on a “mix of culture wars and trans debate”.

3) And Badenoch’s opponents will also have a hollow laugh at the claim that she has sought to take the heat out of the debate on LGBT issues. She is seen as the minister responsible for the fact the government’s trans guidance for schools describes “gender identity ideology” as “a contested belief”. As Archie Bland wrote at the time, this “contradicts the settled position implied by the World Health Organization, the UK census, the law, the NHS, and the government itself”. Campaigners have claimed the guidance will “erase decades of progress in making schools places that value difference and reject discrimination”.

4) But none of these objections are likely to stop interventions like this boosting Badenoch’s popularity with Tory activists. This afternoon, less than an hour after the tweets appeared, the bookmakers Coral sent out a press release saying it had “slashed the odds to 2-1 (from 7-2) on Kemi Badenoch becoming the next Conservative leader following support [ie new bets being placed on her] this afternoon”.

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Keir Starmer has posted this on X about his meeting with Esther Ghey. He makes a point of calling Brianna her daughter.

Today I met Esther Ghey, whose daughter Brianna was murdered last year.

I am utterly in awe of her strength and bravery in the face of such unimaginable grief, as she campaigns to make sure no parent has to go through what she did.

Labour will work with campaigners and parents like Esther to ensure our children and young people have the mental health support they need. It’s what Brianna and her family deserve.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister, has claimed that, if Esther Ghey was not at parliament today, MPs would not have objected to Rishi Sunak’s anti-trans jibe. She posted this on X.

This was truly terrible from Sunak. But let’s not kid ourselves - had Brianna’s mum not been there today, no-one (including Keir Starmer) would have batted an eyelid. It’s not good enough to stand against transphobia only when the mother of a murdered trans girl might be listening. It needs to be done all of the time.

Kemi Badenoch, who combines being business secretary with being minister for women and equality, has put out a statement on X claiming it was “shameful” that Keir Starmer chose to use the murder of Brianna Ghey for “political point-scoring”.

She also claimed that she personally had sought to take the heat out of the trans issue, and that it was Labour that was weaponising it.

Every murder is a tragedy. None should be trivialised by political point-scoring. As a mother, I can imagine the trauma that Esther Ghey has endured.

It was shameful of Starmer to link his own inability to be clear on the matter of sex and gender directly to her grief. (1/2)

As Minister for Women and Equalities I’ve done all I can to ensure we have take the heat out of the debate on LGBT issues while being clear about our beliefs and principles.

Keir Starmer’s behaviour today shows Labour are happy to weaponise this issue when it suits them (2/2)

The Conservative MP Nickie Aiken has said that she is stepping down at the next election. A deputy chair of the Conservative party, she was only elected in 2019, but she says she is quitting because her husband, Alex Aiken, executive director for the Government Communication Service, is taking a job abroad.

Aiken represents Cities of London and Westminster, where she had a majority of 3,953 at the last election.

According to this list compiled by the House of Commons library, she is the 55th Tory to say they are standing down – or 58th if MPs elected as Conservatives but now sitting as independents are included.

The Department of Health and Social Care has now published its dental recovery plan for England.

In the Commons the SNP MP Hannah Bardell used a point of order to say that Rishi Sunak should apologise for his anti-trans jibe. She said she was “horrified” to hear Sunak “on his feet during LGBT history month, and on a day when Brianna Ghey’s mother was in parliament, to make a transphobic joke across the chamber”.

She went on:

We come to this place as elected representatives to improve the condition of others, do we not? And at a time when the trans community are facing unprecedented attacks from people in this place, from people in the other place, and from the media, it is incumbent upon as all to reflect on our language, on how we approach these issues and how we talk about the trans and non-binary community.

I think and I hope [the deputy speaker] will guide me in how we can make sure the prime minister apologises.

Dame Eleanor Laing, the deputy speaker, said it was not her job to require Rishi Sunak to “say anything different”.

But she said paid tribute to Esther Ghey and she said “when a tragedy has occurred that we ought to show sympathy and understanding, and not always make political points”.

Stonewall, which campaigns on behalf of LGBTQ+ people, has joined opposition politicians in saying Rishi Sunak should apologise for his anti-trans jibe at PMQs. In a statement, it says dehumanising comments like this from people in power “can and do result in harm”.

7 Feb 202408.49 EST

Severin Carrell

The Scottish National party still holds a clear lead over Labour in both Westminster and Holyrood elections, according to a new poll by Ipsos which does, however, show those leads being steadily eroded.

The Ipsos poll, for Scotland’s commercial broadcaster STV, puts the SNP seven points ahead in a Westminster election on 39%, versus 32% for Labour, and nine points in the constituency vote for Holyrood, on 39%. It said the SNP still maintains a lead in public trust in health, schools and the cost of living policies.

Humza Yousaf’s advisers argue these findings undermine assumptions now taking root in Scotland that Labour is poised to beat the SNP in the general election, building on its drubbing of the SNP in last October’s Rutherglen byelection.

Other polls put Labour much closer to the SNP in a Westminster vote. Panelbase very recently put Labour three points ahead, and Redfield & Wilton has had Labour two points ahead or neck and neck with the SNP.

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, believes those findings put Labour on or very close to 35% in general election voting. Labour sees that as the magic number, a tipping point at which a large number of SNP seats come into play for Labour.

Some pollsters believe Ipsos’s methodology is more accurate than other commercial polls. YouGov, Panelbase, Survation and Redfield & Wilton tend to use internet-based panels of people registered and sometimes incentivised to take part. Ipsos cold calls voters by telephone and arguably has a wider and more representative net of people to draw from.

However, today’s Ipsos data has warning bells for the SNP; it is tracking a continuing increase in Labour support. In May 2023, the SNP had a 12-point lead in a Westminster election, which fell to 10 points in November 2023. In the Holyrood vote, the SNP lead has fallen from 14 points last May, to 12 in November.

The same squeeze appears in trust ratings; the SNP trust ratings on the NHS, schools and the economy have fallen by five or six points since May 2022 and Labour’s have grown by seven in all three areas.

Labour has also described the Treasury costing document used by CCHQ to argue that Labour’s insulation policy would cost £13bn a year (see 11.53pm) as ludicrous and wrong. A spokesperson said:

This costing is ludicrous and uses bogus assumptions. They have costed someone else’s policy, not Labour’s.

Nick Macpherson, who was permanent secretary at the Treasury from 2005 to 2016, seems to agree. In a post on X, he said:

Over the next 9 months, we will have to tolerate many an “official Treasury” costing of Opposition policy. Since time immemorial, whatever the party in power, these costings have had little if any credibility. Political advisers determine the assumptions. #rubbishinrubbishout

Keir Starmer is due to meet Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, this afternoon, his spokesperson said at Labour’s post-PMQs briefing. Commenting on what Rishi Sunak anti-trans jibe, the spokesperson said:

We don’t think that the country wants or deserves a prime minister happy to use minorities as a punch bag. The comments were really, deeply offensive to trans people, and he should reflect on his response there and apologise.

Ghey has called for under-16s to be banned from accessing social media on mobile phones. The spokesperson said Labour was open-minded about this proposal.

Opposition MPs are denouncing Rishi Sunak on X over his anti-trans jibe. Here are some examples.

From Anneliese Dodds, the shadow secretary for women and equalities

This isn’t the first time Rishi Sunak has used LGBT+ people as a punchline to a cruel joke.

But making jokes about trans people in front of the mother of Brianna Ghey is a shameful new low.

We must do better than this. The Prime Minister should apologise immediately.

From Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader

Appalling scenes in #PMQs as Sunak taunts trans people (“what is a woman”) in front of Esther Ghey, mother of Brianna Ghey, who is watching in the Commons gallery today.

The PM has brought shame on his office and on the House. MPs are rightly shouting “apologise”.

From the Green MP Caroline Lucas

Even with Brianna Ghey’s mother in the public gallery, the PM can’t resist blowing the culture war dogwhistle. Is there no depth to which he will not sink?

From Labour’s Ben Bradshaw

Disgusting man, Rishi Sunak, making transphobic slurs at PMQs with Brianna Ghey’s mother in the gallery & dodging the chance to apologise. Brilliant & genuinely furious response from @Keir_Starmer

From Labour’s Matt Western

In the same week we’ve been outraged by the comments of 3 Conservative Cllrs on SEND children, we now hear the PM mocking trans people whilst Brianna Ghey’s mother is in the audience.

Just horrifying. Nationally and locally, they’re targeting some of the most vulnerable

From Labour’s Sarah Champion

Rishi makes trans joke during PMQs while Brianna Ghey‘s mum was in parliament. Even worse, it was clearly scripted. What is wrong with these people

From Labour’s Zarah Sultana

Disgusted to hear Rishi Sunak make a transphobic jibe in the Commons, even as Brianna Ghey’s mother is in the public gallery.

Brianna’s horrific murder – which was confirmed as being motivated by transphobia – should have finally taught politicians not to spread this hate.