Rishi Sunak will reimpose a ban on fracking, Downing Street has confirmed, after the Prime Minister said he is committed to the pledges made in the 2019 Tory manifesto.
Liz Truss lifted the ban when she was premier but Mr Sunak told MPs during his first Prime Minister’s Questions that he has “already said I stand by the manifesto on that”.
The 2019 Conservative Party manifesto said: “We will not support fracking unless the science shows categorically that it can be done safely.”
The Prime Minister’s press secretary said after PMQs that Mr Sunak is “committed to the promise of the manifesto” and would prevent any new shale gas developments in the UK.
The decision to lift the ban was only announced on September 22. There had been a moratorium in place since 2019 which prohibited fracking because of concerns about earth tremors.
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04:00 PM:
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3:37 PM:
DUP ‘ready to fight’ fresh Assembly elections
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the DUP, has said his party is “ready to fight” in fresh Assembly elections if Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary, decides to trigger another national vote.
Mr Heaton-Harris is holding discussions with Stormont leaders as a deadline for calling another election in the region approaches. He has repeatedly warned he will call a Stormont poll if Friday’s deadline passes without a devolved executive being formed.
But Sir Jeffrey told reporters in London there was “still some way to go” in solving the problems over the Northern Ireland Protocol, following his phone conversation with Mr Heaton-Harris.
He said he does not believe an election would get Northern Ireland “any quicker towards the solution that we need” but insisted the DUP is “ready to fight in that election”.
3:10 PM:
Michael Gove: ‘Boring is back’
Michael Gove has said that “boring is back” during a speech in central London this afternoon.
Mr Gove, who made a return to Cabinet yesterday as Levelling Up Secretary, spoke at the London Press Club Awards about how he believed the arrival of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister would bring to an end the political chaos of recent months.
In his speech, he said he was “grateful” for the fact that Mr Sunak yesterday stressed “that after 12 months of turbulence, after a rolling news buffet, an all-you-can eat story extravaganza, that boring is back”.
3:04 PM:
Apprenticeships ‘just as important’ as university degrees
Sir Keir Starmer said he “profoundly” believes that apprenticeships are as important as university degrees.
He told reporters: “I think it’s a fantastic thing when people are able to go off to university. I came from a working-class background and was privileged to go to university.
“But it’s not the only route and there are other routes which are equally important, and I don’t think we’ve had them in equal measure for a very, very long time now.”
Referring to a report from Labour’s council of skills advisers (see the post below at 15.03), Sir Keir added: “What this report does is say that the apprenticeship route is just as important as university. I profoundly believe that.”
3:03 PM:
Starmer accepts skills report from Lord Blunkett
A new national taskforce should form part of efforts to trigger a “revolution” in learning and skills, Lord Blunkett, the former Labour education secretary, has said.
The call is one of a number of recommendations from Labour’s council of skills advisers, led by Lord Blunkett, and could inform a slate of policies if Sir Keir Starmer’s party gains power after the next general election.
Sir Keir said today that he had accepted the report. He said: “One of the biggest problems we’ve had over the last 12 years is low growth and that’s because this Government has not modernised our skills and training across the whole country. It’s been holding us back.
“So I’m really pleased to receive this report. It’s a comprehensive report. It sets out how we will ensure under a Labour government that everybody has the skills that they need for life, for the jobs that they are going into.”
