Reform UK Senedd member given speaking ban over ‘offensive’ comments about migrants replacing white Britons – UK politics live

The leader of Reform in Wales has said her party stands with a member who was banned from speaking in the Welsh parliament after claiming white British people were being replaced in the UK, the Press Association reports.

Reform’s Joe Martin was handed the ban yesterday after his comments were described as “discriminatory” and “offensive” by the Llywydd (presiding officer), Huw Irranca-Davies.

Helen Jenner, the Reform UK leader in the Senedd, posted a message on social media this morning saying:

Freedom of speech must be protected at all costs.

Speaking in the Senedd yesterday, Martin, the MS for Caerdydd Penarth, said:

Can I have a statement from your government on the demographic replacement of white British people taking place in the UK? Because the scale of change has been breathtaking. Mass immigration and differing birth rates mean that, in just 37 years’ time, in 2063, we will be a minority in our own country. That change has already taken place in London, Birmingham, Leicester, Slough, Luton and Manchester, and I don’t want it to happen here.

Indeed, at every opportunity, the majority of the electorate have wanted less immigration so that their nation can be preserved. A nation is not an economic zone, it’s not a hotel, and neither is it a charity. It’s a family, which is capable of absorbing people of all races if done at a sensible rate, but not if it’s replaced altogether.

Welsh minister Heledd Fychan responded by asking for a ruling on whether the comments were in line with Senedd rules, adding:

We have a duty for every single member of our communities that we represent. I reject division and hate. We had a question earlier to the prif weinidog (first minister) around antisemitism. We cannot differentiate between people of different religions, different sexuality, different skin colour. We are a government for everyone here in Wales, we are supposed to be a Senedd for everyone here in Wales. I reject wholeheartedly the division that is spouted by those members.

Later in the afternoon, Irranca-Davies said he considered the comments made by Martin to be “unnecessarily provocative and deliberately offensive”. He said:

Whilst it is always possible to raise legitimate policy matters in relation to immigration in this siambr [chamber], the focus of that contribution on race and ethnicity was clearly discriminatory, offensive, and detracted from the dignity of the Senedd.

This is not the first time the member has pushed the boundaries in his contributions, and I have previously warned him about his conduct.

Until I receive a clear indication that the member understands the boundaries of acceptable parliamentary conduct and apologises to the siambr, we will not be calling the member to speak.

Reform is the largest opposition group to the Plaid Cymru-led government.

Back to Labour’s EU policy, and Stuart Ingham, head of the policy unit in No 10 when Keir Starmer was PM, has written a long and subtle article in the New Statesman arguing that, rather than focus on trying to rejoin the EU fully, or just the single market, Andy Burnham would be better off focusing for now on goals around which Labour could unite.

Where does Rejoin fit into this? If there was a referendum tomorrow, I’d vote to undo a mistake. Perhaps for some, saying so is the first necessary step of a longer journey. But I fear divisions about questions we don’t have to answer at the moment will be a barrier to unity over the questions that we do. The soft Euroscepticism inherent in Labour may harden at just the wrong moment …

Then there are the voters. The Prime Minister speaks with them when he says that Brexit has been a failure and the status quo isn’t good enough. There is scope to sell an economic and security partnership, and leave Reform and the Tories to fight over a tiny pool of voters that think it’s been a success. The arguments against Rejoin are stronger: they allow the populist right to avoid defending the Brexit it has delivered and go straight to its home territory – emotional arguments about democracy, betrayal and elites.

The reset should be promoted on its own terms. It can be a stepping stone for those with a destination in mind and a leap forward to a better deal for those that don’t. Labour, for now, is a party with Rejoiners in it rather than a Rejoiner party.

When Ingham was in Downing Street, he was working on the deals on food exports, energy policy and youth mobility that are due to be presented as a reset moment at the UK-EU summit next week. The EU regularly says it will not allow cherry picking, and that to gain the all the advantages of the single market, states have to accept all the obligations (including free movement). Ingham points out that, in practice, it is not that straightword, which is why there are opportunities for Britain that don’t involve full membership or full single market membership. He explains:

The government I advised on Europe policy made headway in getting the UK included in both the Made in Europe and European defence programmes. The EU has agreed that Britain can participate in the Ukraine loan scheme – so Kyiv can buy weapons and munitions from British firms with European capital. The UK is within the scope of draft clauses of the Industrial Accelerator Act, meaning its companies may be able to bid for large procurement contracts. The emissions trading agreement, expected to be signed this month, paves the way for British manufacturers to be exempt from Europe’s carbon import taxes, without which reindustrialisation cannot happen. Although the EU will not want it presented this way, that emissions agreement is Britain being allowed access and rights within the parts of the single market where it follows the rules. The food and drink and electricity deals, pitched to the EU as about food security and energy security, are the same. Cherries can be picked when it’s in everyone’s common security interest.

In a Bluesky thread on the Joe Martin story (see 11.04am), Will Hayward, the Welsh political commentator, says he thinks Martin may soon defect from Reform UK to Restore Britain. “Mr Martin has been making kissy faces at Restore for a while,” Hayward says. “Reform sources within that group tell me the party are deeply concerned at Restore eating into their vote and potential defections.”

Hayward points out that Rupert Lowe, the Restore Britain MP and party leader, has been tweeting in support of Martin. In one message, Lowe said:

If the Welsh Parliament is going to shut down legitimate debate around demographic security and immigration, the Restore Britain answer is quite straightforward...

Roll back devolution and shut down the Welsh parliament.

Here are some more comments on the report for the Casey commission released today looking at how social care is run in England. (See 9.56am.)

This is from Natasha Curry, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust and one of the report’s authors.

Compared to the other countries we looked at, the governance of England’s social care system is confused and complex. Overlapping and unclear roles leave dangerous uncertainty around who is responsible for important decisions, contributing to the inertia around reform England has struggled with for decades. The serious consequences of this were laid bare during the Covid pandemic.

This is from Stuart Hoddinott, associate director at the Institute for Government, who is another co-author of the report.

The system for governing adult social care in England has evolved haphazardly and with little clear planning. That has been exacerbated by successive governments ducking politically unpalatable decisions for decades. That has scattered responsibility for the sector across and outside government in a way that few would design from scratch.

And this is from Prof Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing.

This report makes for sober reading of how adult social care and those who rely on it have been systematically failed. The fragmentation we see today is what happens when there is a total absence of political leadership to ensure the sector is well-funded and provides equitable access to care.

Ministers discussed EU policy at a political cabinet yesterday. Downing Street issued a readout afterwards that stressed the advantages that might come from the deals due to be agreed at next week’s UK-EU summit. But, according to a story by Arj Singh and Caroline Wheeler in the i, there was not quite as much unity at the meeting as the official account implied. They report:

[Burnham] struggled to dampen splits among cabinet ministers, which were first revealed by The i Paper, who used the meeting to express differing views on the future relationship with Brussels.

One source with knowledge of the cabinet discussion said there was a “clear divide between those who want to go further and those who don’t want to push the issue too far”.

The source said no consensus position was reached at the meeting, in a blow to Burnham’s plan to try to persuade reluctant cabinet ministers opposed to moving too quickly towards a closer relationship with Europe to unite behind him.

On Sunday Kiran Stacey reported that a crunch ministerial meeting, chaired by Louise Haigh, was due to take place today and that it was expected to lead to the government’s electric vehicle (EV) targets being watered down. Now Politico reports the meeting has been postponed until tomorrow “due to diary clashes”.

Britain is willing to discuss paying towards infrastructure schemes in poorer parts of the EU in return for access to the European electricity market, according to the minister in charge of renegotiating the bilateral relationship, Sally Weale and Kiran Stacey report.

The Welsh government has announced it is setting up a National Commission for Wales “to provide advice, evidence and analysis on Wales’s constitutional future”. It is expected to cost around £500,000 a year. Announcing the move, Dafydd Trystan Davies, minister for government effectiveness and the constitution in the Plaid Cymru-led Welsh government, said:

The way the United Kingdom is structured and governed is under increasing strain, and debates about devolution, accountability and where decisions should be made are increasingly pressing.

Responsible government means ensuring Wales is ready to shape its own future, with the evidence, advice and democratic space needed to make informed choices. This is not an abstract debate. It is about whether Wales has the right tools, powers and democratic arrangements to deliver better outcomes for our people.

That preparation cannot be the work of government alone. It requires a broad, open and constructive conversation across this Senedd and across Wales.

In a speech later today, Louise Casey, the Whitehall troubleshooter who is leading a commission reviewing adult social care for the government, will say successive governments in England have been “asleep at the wheel” on social care, leaving the system to grow as a chaotic patchwork of local services with no clear vision. Patrick Butler has the story here.

Casey was also on the Today programme this morning and she

The most telling thing is the fact that nobody really sees the importance and the value – the human value, let alone anything else – of personal social care.

And I think that over time the National Health Service has become much more pulled into being a National Hospital Service that very much concentrates around medical treatment, surgery and those sorts of things. And of course, that’s incredibly important …

But by the same token, we do not put the same value on somebody who is, say, recovering from a stroke, and needs physiotherapy and occupational therapy, and then they still need somebody to help them get in and out of bed.

To coincide with Casey’s speech, the Nuffield Trust and the Institute for Government have published a report, commissioned by the Casey commission, looking at the governance of the social care system in England. Bluntly, it says the system is a bit of a mess. It explains:

The result [the adult social care system developed in England] is a complex system where responsibilities are spread between central government departments, and across a range of arm’s-length bodies; between national and local government; and between government and a vast array of non-public sector providers. Decision-making processes can be opaque and a single point of responsibility for overall oversight and stewardship is lacking.

The report also suggests the Casey commission should consider the

In England, the current distribution of provision, in which private providers dominate and only a very small proportion is operated by the state, has emerged in a largely uncontrolled and unintended way (see the [Richard] Humphries and [Nicholas] Timmins working paper). The commission and the government may wish to take an explicit position on the balance of public, not-for-profit, and for profit provision, and whether social care is a sector where profit from public funding is tolerable – as the government under the previous prime minister announced for the children’s care sector with the intention to set profit caps for private providers. The role of private equity in the market is of particular significance and its benefits of attracting investment versus its risks of instability driven by high debt ratios needs to be carefully examined.

The national security of all countries is at risk from the climate crisis, as “science fiction” scenarios of widespread destruction are already coming true and economic shocks from fossil fuels are now the norm rather than the exception, Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, will warn at the Cop31 summit today. Fiona Harvey has the story.

The CBI has issued a statement welcoming the PM’s offshore wind announcement. (See 8.55am.) This is from its chief executive, Rain Newton-Smith.

The prime minister’s announcement of major investment in offshore wind is a powerful restatement of the UK’s clean energy ambitions and the economic opportunities they can unlock. Investment on this scale can attract further private capital, create skilled jobs and support growth in communities across the country.

Good morning. Andy Burnham has got PMQs today, and after that he will leave for what looks like a rather hectic Turkey/Ireland trip which tomorrow will see him address the Cop31 climate summit in the morning, before attending his first major summit with EU leaders (and some other European leaders – it’s a European Political Community event) in Dublin later in the day.

Of the two events, the EPC is probably the more important for Burnham because it will give him the chance to clear the air ahead of the UK-EU summit next week, and because Burnham has made renegotiating the relationship with the EU a key aim of his premiership.

But Cop31 is important too because Burnham wants to show that he remains committed to the net zero climate agenda but that he is also “pragmatic” about pursuing this in a way that helps with cost of living pressures. This morning he has an announcement that will help in this respect; Downing Street has announced the next stage in two huge offshore wind projects.

One relates to the Vanguard East and Vanguard West projects. No 10 says:

Energy company RWE, together with global investment firm KKR, have announced a total investment of £12bn, believed to be the biggest of its kind in UK history to date. It will give the green light to its Vanguard West and Vanguard East offshore wind farms, set to be operational by 2030 and delivering clean, secure, homegrown power to homes and businesses that will protect families from global fossil fuel price shocks …

On top of bolstering the UK’s green energy future, the investment will support more than 2,400 jobs during construction and operation, and once operational, the wind farms will have the capacity to supply the equivalent of around three million UK homes …

The decision marks a major milestone for the project, with the developers now making their final investment commitment to deliver the projects. Onshore works are already well advanced, with construction offshore set to begin in early 2027.

The other relates to Berwick Bank B. No 10 says:

On top of this, Scottish-headquartered SSE has announced that the latest phase of its major offshore wind farm, Berwick Bank B, will back 2,677 skilled jobs in manufacturing, engineering and project delivery across the north of England and Scotland, with the company contracting Siemens Energy for the manufacturing of wind turbines and substation platforms. This includes the creation of 130 new project delivery roles in Glasgow and Montrose.

At its full capacity, Berwick Bank, off the east coast of Scotland, could become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, capable of meeting more than 6% of current UK electricity demand.

Welcoming these announcements, Burnham said:

This major investment in UK renewables is a vote of confidence for building in Britain. And it is great news for billpayers because every turbine we put up is power under British control, not at the mercy of events on the other side of the world.

Ajit Niranjan has a separate live blog covering Cop31.

10am: Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, gives evidence to the Commons housing committee.

10.50am: Lucy Powell, the education secretary, gives a speech to the Association of Colleges annual conference in Birmingham.

11am: Louise Casey gives a speech at the National Children and Adult Services conference in Liverpool.

Noon: Andy Burnham faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.

Noon: Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, gives evidence to the Lords constitution committee about constitutional safeguards.

1pm: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, gives a speech to the annual airlines’ conference in London.

2.15pm: John Healey, the chancellor, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about the budget.

Afternoon: Burnham leaves London to fly to the Cop31 climate conference in Turkey.

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