Rishi Sunak criticised for not appointing dedicated minister for disabled people – UK politics live | Politics

Ricketts, a former ambassador to Paris, asks about relations with France.

Cameron says he is proud of the Lancaster House agreement he struck with France. He had a very wise national security adviser at the time, he says. (It was Ricketts.)

He says cooperating in defence areas, and nuclear areas, was a good idea, and he is glad it has been realised. There is an opportunity next year to take it further, he says.

He says he would like to do more. The UK and France have the same challenges. They both have great military capabilities, but those involve high costs too, he says.

Asked about Germany, he says the relationship is different because it does not have the same defence abilities. So he does not think a Lancaster House-type deal with Germany would be appropriate, he says.

Lord Trenchard (Con) asks about the European Political Community.

Cameron says he is in favour of this initiative. He challenges the claim that its last meeting, in Spain, was not a success. And he says it is relatively informal.

If you put all issues into a structure, every EU member has to be consulted. That can hold up decisions, he says.

Roger Liddle, who was Tony Blair’s Europe adviser, goes next.

Q: The Europeans are keen on a security partnership. Why don’t we take advantage of that? During the referendum campaign, you argued being in the EU helped the UK maximise its foreign policy clout.

Cameron says if you are in the EU, you must use its structures. But if you are out, you can focus on what you want.

He cites military training as an example of where the UK has been able to supercharge its efforts since Brexit.

“It’s a question of finding what works,” he says.

And he says, having left, it is a mistake to try to recreate the structures that were in place when the UK was a member.

Cameron compares relations with the EU to being in coalition with the Lib Dems.

He says when the coalition was set up, the civil service recommended the creation of a committee to oversee problems.

But it only met once, he says. That is because he and the Lib Dems found ad hoc way to resolve problems.

He says he thinks the same approach should work with the EU.

He says a big industralist told him the other day the UK was “big enough to matter but small enough to be nimble”.

When the EU is looking for a partner, it will be attracted to the UK because of factors like its military capacity, its diplomatic skills and its large aid budget.

Cameron is now being questioned by Norman Lamont, who was Tory chancellor in the early 1990s. Cameron worked for him as a special adviser until Lamont was sacked.

Q: What impact do you think joining the CPTPP trade deal will have on relations with the EU?

Cameron says there is not point leaving the EU if you don’t take advantage of not being in. He says he supports joining the CPTPP. He says he hopes the UK will be able to help shape it.

Lord Ricketts, who was national security adviser when Cameron became PM, is chair of the committee.

Q: How do you see relations with the EU?

Cameron says he sees relations as “postive and driving quite good results in the areas where we want to have them”.

He says he thinks the Windsor framework was the result of a “superb” negotiation.

He says he learned from bitter experience that negotiations are difficult if they are done in public. He says this one worked well because the key elements were kept secret.

He says after he stood down as PM he did not keep up his relations with European leaders. He did not want to be seen as undermining his successor, and he did not want people to think he was acting as a back channel.

David Cameron gives evidence to Lords European affairs committee

The Department for Education has today launched a consultation on Rishi Sunak’s plan to replace A levels with a new, broader qualification – the Advanced British Standard. In a news release about the plans for England, the DfE says:

At the heart of the proposals for the Advanced British Standard are an increase in teaching time of around 200 hours over the course of the qualification, greater breadth and choice for young people and a core focus on vital maths and English.

The Advanced British Standard will mean most students choose a minimum of 5 subjects from a menu of options to give more breadth and flexibility.

These subjects will be built on A levels and T Levels, retaining their rigour and focus on building knowledge. By increasing teaching time and the breadth of what students can study, including maths and English, the Advanced British Standard will widen students’ career options and bring England in line with major economies such as France, Germany, Japan and the USA …

Plans for the Advanced British Standard were first announced by the prime minister in October. The launch of the consultation today kick starts these transformative reforms, which are expected to take around 10 years to complete.

Sunak to visit Rome at weekend to attend Italian PM’s rightwing political event, No 10 confirms

Labour and the SNP have joined those criticising Rishi Sunak for not appointing a dedicated minister for disabled people. (See 2.14pm.)

This is from Vicky Foxcroft, the shadow minister for disabled people.

Shocking that @RishiSunak has chosen not to appoint a new Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work.

After 13 years of Tory austerity, pandemic and cost of living crisis, disabled people feel their voices aren’t being heard and represented in Government.

This confirms it.

And this is from the SNP MP Marion Fellows.

Whether they’ve been punished by the austerity agenda, sanctions regime, cruel work capability assessments, or through the lack of any meaningful cost of living support, disabled people are clearly no priority for this UK government. Scrapping the role of minister for disabled people shows that.

To scrap the role after thirteen years of austerity shows a blatant disregard to those who have struggled the most under this UK government, and a complete abdication of responsibility in assisting disabled people to live better lives.

Almost 400,000 penalties issued in England for pupils missing school, figures show

Sunak criticised for not appointing dedicated minister for disabled after Tom Pursglove’s move to legal migration minister

This year the Guardian and Observer charity appeal is raising money for three charities that support refugees and asylum seekers. As Patrick Butler reports, we have already raised more than £350,000.

You can donate to the appeal here.

Or you could wait until Saturday, and call our telethon phoneline. Guardian journalists will be taking calls, and I’ll be there from 10am to 12pm. Do call and ask for me if you fancy a chat. The phone number will be plastered all over the website, and the paper, on Saturday morning.

Tory former Cop26 president Alok Sharma urges government to reconsider plan for annual North Sea oil and gas licences

Stuart Hoddinott from the Institute for Government thinktank has published more graphs illustrating today’s NHS England hospital waiting figures (see 11.16am and 12.32pm). He says, overall, the results are good for the NHS.

Vaughan Gething, Welsh economy minister, says he’s standing to replace Drakeford as first minister

Steven Morris

Here are some more figures from the NHS England performance figures out today. I’ve taken the copy from PA Media.

I posted the headline figure, for hospital operations, at 11.16am. There are 7.71m treatments in the queue, although that does not mean 7.71m people on a waiting list. NHS England is now publishing, alongside the headline figure, a figure for the number of individuals waiting. It’s now 6.44m. Some people are waiting for more than one procedure.

Ambulance handovers

• Some 15% of ambulance handovers in England last week, or 12,797 patients, were delayed by more than an hour, PA says. This was up from 9%, or 8,239 patients, a fortnight earlier. However it was slightly lower than the 17% recorded in the equivalent week in 2022.

• Around one in three (34%) patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals in England last week waited more than 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams, PA says. The figure is up from 25% for the week ending November 26.

A&E waiting times

• Some 69.7% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 70.2% in October, PA says. The figure hit a record low of 65.2% in December 2022. The NHS recovery plan sets a target of March 2024 for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

• The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted was 42,854 in November, down slightly from 44,655 in October, PA says. The figure hit a record 54,573 in December 2022.

Hospital treatment waiting times

• A total of 377,618 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of October, down from 391,122 at the end of September, PA says. The government and NHS England have set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than a year by March 2025.

• Some 10,506 people in England are estimated to have been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of October, up from 10,201 at the end of September, PA says. The government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April this year, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.

Cancer waiting times

• Some 71.1% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer in October were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days, up from 69.7% the previous month, PA says. The target is 75%.

• The proportion of patients in England waiting longer than 62 days in October from an urgent suspected cancer referral or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 63.1%, down slightly from 63.3% in September, PA says. The target is for 85% of people to be seen within that time limit.

Israeli settlers responsible for violence against Palestinians on West Bank will be banned from UK, David Cameron says