Labour accuses Sunak of betraying renters after it emerges bill to ban no-fault evictions could be watered down – UK politics live | Politics

In an interview with Times Radio this morning Liam Byrne also said that, based on the evidence he heard yesterday, he thinks Henry Staunton, the former Post Office chair, genuinely believed that he had been told by the permanent secretary at the business department at the time, Sarah Munby, to slow down compensation payments.

Referring to Staunton’s evidence on this, Byrne said:

I believe that he believed that (that Munby wanted him to go slow on compensation payments). I’ve been a minister. I know how it all works. I suspect that he went to a meeting with the senior civil servant, and the conversation was in kind of civil service language, with a nod and a wink.

And the point is that Henry Staunton left that meeting with ambiguity in his mind. And on something like this, there’s no room for ambiguity. You need very, very clear instruction to deliver with deadlines and targets and incentives for actually delivering on time. And so none of that we found evidence for none of that.

MPs are normally inclined to accept that people giving evidence to committees are telling the truth, but the Department for Business and Trade has strongly rejected Staunton’s account of his conversation with Munby, and Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, has accused him of lying.

Liam Byrne, the Labour chair of the Commons business committee, has said that he was “horrified” to learn yesterday that ministers have not formally instructed the Post Office to speed up compensation payments to victims of the Horizon scandal. He posted these messages on X about his committee’s marathon evidence session on this topic, which was covered extensively on yesterday’s live blog.

1/. A few thoughts on #PostOffice scandal from yesterday’s 5 hour hearing…

Having been a minister in tricky jobs in Govt, I know the value of very clear ‘instructions to deliver’ with deadlines etc.

I was horrified that #PostOffice CX, Nick Read told me he didn’t have those

Why is that so important? Because at the current snail’s pace of paying redress, the claimants lawyers say it’ll take 1-2 more years to pay out. That’s totally unacceptable!

The most generous characterisation of yesterday’s evidence from Mr Read & Mr Staunton is that bluntly, the #PostOffice board is in chaos. That’s the point I made @HouseofCommons earlier this week

This chaos has been compounded by what at best sound like ambiguous instructions to Mr Staunton

This is why we need to use the new Bill – which ministers will use to overturn convictions – to put legally binding timetables on the redress scheme, and take it away from the #PostOffice

Enough is enough. We cannot tolerate these delays a moment longer.

Rishi Sunak has been accused of betraying renters after it emerged the government is planning to water down long-awaited legislation that would ban no-fault evictions.

The Conservatives promised to outlaw no-fault evictions and a bill that would do this, the renters (reform) bill, was published in May last year.

But the bill has still not cleared the Commons. It was stalled for months, carried over into the current session of parliament and given a second reading in November. The government has still not announced when the final Commons debates will take place, although Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has promised that it will become law before the election.

Ministers have been dragging their feet because the bill as it stands is unpopular with a cohort of Tory MPs, and today Harry Farley from the BBC is reporting that Gove is consulting them on compromise amendments that he is offering to get the bill through parliament.

The BBC says:

The draft government amendments include putting it in law that the ban on no-fault evictions could not be implemented until an assessment of its impact on the courts had been published by the Justice Secretary.

It comes after MPs on the housing select committee last year warned that abolishing no-fault evictions would lead to increased pressure on the courts, because landlords will have to give a reason to remove a tenant, such as rent arrears or antisocial behaviour …

The government is also promising to review the system by which councils can regulate landlords and enforce standards, known as selective licensing.

In the documents circulated to potential rebel Tory MPs, the government promised to announce a review of the scheme “with the explicit aim of reducing burdens on landlords”.

Among the other draft amendments the government is suggesting:

-Requiring renters to live in a property for a minimum of four months before they can give notice to end their tenancy

-Allow “hearsay” evidence in eviction claims for antisocial behaviour

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader and shadow housing secretary, said:

This is yet another betrayal of renters by the Conservatives, and yet another example of Rishi Sunak’s weakness which means he always puts party before country.

Having broken the justice system, the Tories are now using their own failure to break their promises to renters in the most underhand way. The government must give a statement to Parliament today.

Fourteen years of Tory failure have failed renters. Labour will ban no fault evictions, no ifs no buts.

Campaigners have also denounced the move.

Tom Darling, campaign manager for the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said:

It is scandalous and farcical that the government are now outsourcing the writing of the renters (reform) bill to their landlord backbenchers. It reeks of desperation.

They don’t know want to be seen to have reneged on their promise to deliver a better deal for renters, but with the ban on section 21 even further into the long grass, and the suggestion they are looking to ‘lower the burden on landlords’ to provide safe housing, England’s 11 million private renters will struggle to come to any other conclusion.

In reality, the government’s initial proposals are the baseline of the change we need to the private rented sector. To actually fix the crisis in private renting we need a bill with longer tenancies, more time for renters to find a new home when evictions do happen, higher penalties for unscrupulous landlords, and a cap on rent increases to prevent unaffordable rent hikes becoming, in effect, no-fault evictions.

And Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said:

Weakening licensing schemes could compromise the safety of renters. These schemes give councils some of the strongest powers to tackle criminal landlords and sub-standard, dangerous homes ..

We have waited a very long time for this Bill, but it must genuinely offer to improve renters’ lives if it is to be worth the paper it’s written on.

Good morning. A week after Sir Lindsay Hoyle up-ended Commons procedural rules in the Gaza debate, partly because he had been persuaded that not allowing a vote on the Labour amendment would increase the risk to MPs having to vote on the SNP’s motion but not theirs, the government has announced a significant package of measures to improve parliamentarians’ security. The details don’t seem to be on the Home Office’s website yet, but PA Media has a good summary.

Security measures for MPs will be bolstered with a £31m package that will include providing elected politicians with a dedicated police contact to liaise with over safety issues.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, who made the funding announcement, will meet with police chiefs on Wednesday to discuss what more can be done to improve the safety of MPs.

He said no MP should have to accept that threats or harassment is “part of the job”.

The extra funding follows fears about MPs being targeted and intimidated by demonstrators in recent months, particularly by those demanding action to bring an end to the fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.

Conservative backbencher Tobias Ellwood’s home was targeted earlier this month by pro-Palestine protesters, with the police warning his family to “stay away” from the property as “arriving through that crowd would’ve antagonised the situation”.

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have also had their family homes set upon by environmental protesters in past months.

The Home Office said the latest funding package will provide increased security provisions for MPs.

The investment will be used to enhance police capabilities, increase private sector security provisions for those facing a higher risk and to expand cyber security advice to locally elected representatives.

It will also ensure all elected representatives and candidates have a dedicated named police contact to liaise with on security matters, officials said.

Cleverly’s department said the measures would significantly expand the support provided under current policing arrangements for politicians.

The home secretary will hold a roundtable with the National Police Chiefs’ Council today to discuss efforts to “protect democratic processes from intimidation, disruption or subversion”, his aides said.

The announcement includes the establishment of a communities fund to support the deployment of additional police patrols each week in England and Wales to help deal with “increased community tensions”, the Home Office said.

It is designed to increase support available to vulnerable communities, increase police visibility and boost public confidence, the department added.

Two serving MPs — Labour’s Jo Cox and Conservative Sir David Amess — have been murdered in the past eight years, with reforms to the security of parliamentarians having been introduced as a result of those killings.

Changes have included improvements to existing security measures at MPs’ homes and offices, and the bringing in additional private sector-delivered protective security where necessary.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Huw Merriman, the rail minister, gives evidence to the Commons transport committee.

10.30am: Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, holds a press conference on poverty.

12pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

12.30pm: Farmers are staging a protest outside the Senedd in Cardiff against the Welsh government’s sustainable farming plans.

1pm: John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, gives a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank.

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