Starmer declines to say if he will sack Rayner if she is found to have broken ministerial code – as it happened

Starmer declines to say, if Rayner is found to have broken ministerial code, she will automatically be sacked

Keir Starmer has said that he expects to get the report from his ethics adviser on Angela Rayner quickly – but refused to say she will have to go if she has broken the ministerial code.

In an interview with Chris Mason, the BBC’s poltical editor, Starmer said that he would “act on” whatever the report said.

But, despite being asked repeatedly if he would sack Rayner if it was shown she had broken the ministerial code, he declined to make that commitment.

Asked directly if he would sack Rayner if Sir Laurie Magnus, the PM’s ethics adviser, concludes that she has broken the ministerial code, Starmer replied:

Angela Rayner has referred herself to the independent advisor. My experience is he will be comprehensive in the report that he gives me. He will be quick, and that’s what I’m expecting. And so I want to let that process take its course.

Asked again if a breach of the code would be a sacking offence, Starmer said he would “look very carefully, as you’d expect, at whatever report [Magnus] puts in front of me”.

When Mason put it to him that Starmer’s equivocation on this reminded him of Boris Johnson (who kept Priti Patel in cabinet despite a report saying she broke the code by bullying civil servants), Starmer rejected this claim. He said there were “key differences”.

Firstly, I strengthened the code and the role of the independent adviser. Secondly, I insist that if there’s any issue, any minister refers themselves to the process.

But when Mason asked him to confirm that he was not prepared to say a breach of the code would inevitably lead to Rayner being sacked, Starmer replied:

I’m saying is there’s a clear procedure … I am expecting a result pretty quickly. I do want it to be comprehensive, as you’d expect. And then of course I will act on whatever the report is that’s put in front of me.

There is speculation that the report could be published tomorrow. (See 11.59am.)

Keir Starmer speaking to ship builders during a visit to BAE Systems Scotstoun in Glasgow today. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty ImagesShare

Updated at 17.21 CEST

Key events

8m ago

Afternoon summary

29m ago

Only 19% of people agree with Robert Jenrick that Reform’s immigration policies not tough enough, poll suggests

53m ago

Northern Ireland executive must ‘throw everything we have’ at tackling racist hate crime, says first minister

1h ago

Scotland’s largest Jewish body criticises Swinney for saying Israel committing genocide in Gaza

1h ago

Starmer says when he defended Rayner on Monday, he did not know about new advice saying she had underpaid tax

2h ago

Starmer declines to say, if Rayner is found to have broken ministerial code, she will automatically be sacked

2h ago

Corbyn confirms he expects his new leftwing party to cooperate locally with Polanski’s Greens

3h ago

Rayner used family conveyancing firm to buy tax row flat

3h ago

Israel’s president to visit London next Thursday for expected talks with ministers

3h ago

Tories claim Reform UK has ‘fallen short’ as Badenoch’s party continues to attract more donations than Farage’s

5h ago

Swinney sidesteps question about Sturgeon taking non-parliamentary earnings as dividends, not salary, minimising tax

5h ago

Tories trying to force out Rayner because she’s ‘bloody good at her job’, Lucy Powell tells MPs

5h ago

Swinney tells SNP that Scottish government must stick to legal route to obtaining second independence referendum

5h ago

No 10 says Starmer has ‘full confidence’ in Rayner, but won’t comment on whether PM expects her to keep job until election

5h ago

Starmer condemns vandalism at Rayner’s flat ‘in strongest possible terms’

6h ago

No 10 says Starmer ‘kept updated’ as Rayner got legal briefing on her tax problem, but ‘final advice’ only arrived on Wednesday

6h ago

Britons would rather have Labour government run by Starmer than Reform one led by Farage, poll suggests

7h ago

Vandals paint grafitti calling Rayner ‘tax evader’ at and near her flat in Hove

7h ago

Home Office asks high court to delay hearing that will resolve whether asylum seekers can stay in Bell hotel in Epping

8h ago

Reeves declines to say when she and Starmer first learned that Rayner had underpaid stamp duty

8h ago

Rachel Reeves says she has ‘full confidence’ in Rayner, and thinks deputy PM can keep her job

9h ago

Tories demand tax fraud investigation into Angela Rayner

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Afternoon summary

Keir Starmer has said that he expects to get the report from his ethics adviser on Angela Rayner quickly – but refused to say she will have to go if she has broken the ministerial code. (See 4.20pm.)

Starmer has confirmed that the government is considering digital ID cards as a means of reducing illegal immigration. He told the BBC in an interview that he thought views on this had changed since a plan by Tony Blair to introduce ID cards failed in the face of public opposition. Starmer said:

We all carry a lot more digital ID now than we did twenty years ago, and I think that psychologically, it plays a different part …

My instinct is [digital ID] can play an important part. Obviously we need to look through some of the detail.

Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, says he has heard “very powerful” evidence about British complicity in the sale of arms to Israel at the first day of his Gaza Tribunal inquiry.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Keir Starmer speaking to apprentices during his visit to BAE Scotstoun shipyard in Glasgow. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/PAShare

Only 19% of people agree with Robert Jenrick that Reform’s immigration policies not tough enough, poll suggests

In an interview with the Spectator, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary (who is widely seen as a likely replacement for Kemi Badenoch) has said that the Conservatives should become even more anti-immigration than Reform UK. In his article Tim Shipman reports:

Jenrick says ‘there’s a lot to welcome’ in Reform UK’s plan. ‘It’s obviously going to be very important that we deport all the illegal migrants in the country and the next government has to make that their priority.’ He does criticise Farage’s suggestion that a Reform government would focus on deporting undocumented males, rather than women and children. ‘The people-smuggling gangs would exploit women and girls and it would encourage even more young men to pose as 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds,’ he says.

Jenrick does not stop there. On legal migration, he wants to outflank Farage and throw down the gauntlet to Badenoch. ‘Damaging though illegal migration is, legal migration is even more harmful to the country because of the sheer eye-watering numbers of people who have been coming across in recent years perfectly legally. It’s putting immense pressure on public services.’

He calls for a return to the situation in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s when the UK was a net emigration country. ‘I think the country now needs breathing space after this period of mass migration. The age of being open to the world and his wife, who are low-wage, low-skilled individuals, and their dependents has to come to an end. Reversing recent low-skilled migration will likely mean a sustained period of net emigration. I would support that’ ….

[Jenrick] goes further than Farage on the housing of asylum seekers. ‘They should be detained in camps,’ he says. ‘The facilities will need to be rudimentary prisons, not holiday camps. It’s not what Reform have suggested, which is cabins with a fence around them.’

According to new polling by YouGov, this is very much a minority view. Only 19% of people think Reform’s immigration policies are not tough enough, the poll suggests.

Polling on Reform’s immigration policies Photograph: YouGovShare

Northern Ireland executive must ‘throw everything we have’ at tackling racist hate crime, says first minister

The Northern Ireland executive needs to “throw everything we have” at tackling hate crime, the first minister, Michelle O’Neill, said.

She was speaking after a meeting of the executive which issued a statement saying “we stand united in our condemnation of all forms of racism, sectarianism and hostility towards individuals of different backgrounds”.

Racist and sectarian crime has been a growing problem in Northern Ireland in recent months.

As the BBC reports, O’Neill said:

This was our first meeting since the summer recess so it’s important we send the message unequivocally and collectively that we are united in standing against racism.

Scotland’s largest Jewish body criticises Swinney for saying Israel committing genocide in Gaza

Severin Carrell

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

Scotland’s largest Jewish body has criticised John Swinney for stating Israel’s attacks on Gaza amount to genocide, arguing it risks reinforcing antisemitic violence against Jews as a whole.

Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, said on Wednesday “a genocide appears to be unfolding in Gaza” because of Israel’s escalating attacks on civilians and the famine now gripping large parts of Gaza.

He said Scottish government agencies would now be barred from financially supporting arms companies who deal with the Israel Defense Forces and civilian firms trading with Israel. The Palestinian flag would now be flown from the government’s headquarters in Edinburgh, he added.

Opinion amongst Scottish Jews is not unanimous. Many Jewish academics support calls for economic boycotts of Israel, and for its conduct to be labelled a genocide, as well as derecognising a controversial definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance which is seen to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Timothy Lovat, chair of the Jewish Council of Scotland, said he was disappointed Swinney appeared to have ignored the JCS’s fears about rising antisemitism when he met them on Monday, to alert them to his proposed intervention on Wednesday.

While it was “indisputable that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire [and] equally beyond debate that both Israel and Hamas bear responsibility for this tragic situation”, it would be “irresponsible” to label it a genocide. That could only be determined by a competent court, Lovat said.

Lovat said:

While any position you or the Scottish government might take on the matter is unlikely to have any impact on the situation in Gaza, it is likely to have significant negative implications for our community here in Scotland.

In particular, setting out a stance likely to be publicly perceived simply and without qualification as anti-Israel, without drawing any distinction between the state of Israel and its current leadership, or acknowledging the continuing culpability of Hamas, is likely to have a far greater and more immediate impact locally, fuelling ‘antizionist’ – and antisemitic – hatred and discrimination against Scotland’s Jews and our institutions and symbols, than it is on the situation in the Middle East, let alone in Westminster.

Lovat said he believed Swinney was a Zionist who supported the right of Jews to establish a state in their ancestral homeland. But “rather than risk increasing fear, anxiety, and trauma in our community, we would respectfully ask you to work with us to promote that vision in a principled, pragmatic, and constructive manner”.

Swinney said today he wanted “every community in Scotland to feel safe and supported and welcome and valued”, and he said he was certain Police Scotland did everything it could to protect Jewish people.

He admitted that when he met the JCS on Monday he “knew they would be uncomfortable with what I was going to say in parliament but I have to do the right thing and act within the law. [There] is a genocide going on in Gaza that I cannot ignore.”

Updated at 17.49 CEST

Starmer says when he defended Rayner on Monday, he did not know about new advice saying she had underpaid tax

Keir Starmer has also rejected the claim that, when he defended Angela Rayner on Monday, he knew that she had been told she underpaid her stamp duty.

In his interview with Chris Mason, Starmer said that at the time he told Radio 5 Live on Monday that people briefing against Rayner were making a “big mistake”, he knew that, when she first paid the stamp duty, she had been told she was paying the right amount.

He also knew at that point she was “taking further advice”. But he did not know about the second legal opinion, saying she had underpaid stamp duty, until Wednesday morning, he said.

(The Downing Street defence of the Radio 5 Live comment was different, though not inconsistent. The PM’s spokesperson said Starmer was making a general, “overarching point”, about Rayner’s critics normally being wrong, not a comment on this specific issue. See 12.25pm.)

Keir Starmer speaking to ship builders during a visit to BAE Systems Scotstoun. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty ImagesShare

After the exchanges on the ministerial code in their interview (see 4.20pm), the BBC’s Chris Mason put it to Keir Starmer that, regardless of what the ethics adviser concluded, it was not feasible for someone “caught in a housing tangle to carry on as housing secretary”.

Starmer replied:

I do think in the end we need to establish the facts, which the independent advisor will do and come to a conclusion.

Angela Rainer took advice when she was doing the conveyancing. She’s subsequently taken other advice. She’s then referred herself to the independent advisor.

That’s the way the process should work. That’s the right thing to do.

I don’t think it’ll take long now for that bit of a process to conclude.

And then of course it does fall to me, I completely accept that, to make a decision based on what I see in that report.