Treasury minister: reports of ‘spear-phishing’ cyber-attacks on MPs ‘extremely troubling’ – UK politics live | Politics

Overnight Amy Gibbons at the Telegraph picked through the bones of Michael Gove’s recent appearance on the Ed Balls and George Osborne podcast, pulling out the line that Gove said he showed “moral cowardice” by leading David Cameron to believe he would take a back seat role during the Brexit referendum.

Asked about Cameron feeling betrayed, it quotes Gove saying:

I do think that I could have been clearer earlier. I think that was an example of, on the one hand, cowardice on my part, moral cowardice, on the other hand, a recognition that perhaps there’s this feeling in politics, perhaps something will turn up, perhaps this moment won’t come when we have to make that decision. But I think David, entirely fairly, should have expected me to have been more upfront earlier.

Gove also said he had not expected to take such a prominent role in the Leave campaign himself.

I didn’t want to take part in the debates, the television shows that I ultimately took part in, or play as prominent a role. One of the arguments was “if you don’t do this, they’ll have Farage on”.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves (not to be confused with Ellie Reeves who was doing the media round today) is expected to be campaigning for May’s local elections – and, let’s face it, the general election – in Blackpool today. It is also where there will be a 2 May byelection in Blackpool South after the resignation of former Conservative MP Scott Benton.

Reeves will be unveiling an advert criticising what Labour is calling a Conservative “tax double whammy” that it claims will leave families £870 worse off.

Ahead of the visit she said:

Every time Rishi Sunak goes on the television claiming he is cutting taxes, he is insulting the intelligence of hard-working families.

Under the Tory tax double whammy, for every extra £10 people are set to pay in higher tax they are only going to get £5 back, and the average household will still be £870 worse off.

Working people can see through the Tories’ tax con. It’s giving with one hand and taking with another.

After 14 years of working people footing the bill for Tory chaos, it’s time for change.

Rishi Sunak should end the chaos, call an election and give the public the chance to vote for a changed Labour party that will change Britain for the better.

Her statements come ahead of the weekend that national insurance changes come into effect. The main rate of employee national insurance will be cut from 10% to 8% from 6 April – the first day of the 2024-25 tax year. However, at the same time the freeze in income tax bands pulls people into higher tax brackets over time as their pay increases.

Hailing the change, prime minister Rishi Sunak has again talked up plans to eventually abolish national insurance, issuing a statement saying:

Hard work is one of my core values, and the progress we have made on the economy means we can reward work with a tax cut worth £900 for the average earner.

This marks the next step in our plan to end the unfairness of double taxation of work by abolishing national insurance in the long term.

Labour has criticised the plan to abolish national insurance, casting it as an unfunded tax cut.

Incidentally, the Conservatives are defending a majority of 3,690 in Blackpool South.

Labour has called for the UK government to make a statement in the house about the legal advice it has received concerning Israel, with a spokesperson saying they have “serious concerns about arm sales to Israel” at the current time.

Speaking on Sky News, Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, said “I think the government needs to make a statement to the house on this issue and be held to account by MPs.”

She told viewers:

I’ve got really serious concerns about arm sales to Israel. That’s why we have repeatedly called for the government to publish the legal advice that it’s received on this.

If the legal advice says that there is a clear risk that UK arms are being used to commit or facilitate breaches of international humanitarian law than arms sales should stop immediately.

But the government have had this advice for close to a month now and haven’t published it. If the advice does say that there are real questions about why they haven’t already acted.

Ellie Reeves went on to say that Labour were calling for an immediate ceasefire and that hostages need to be released.

Kearns: UK government has ‘no choice but to suspend arms sales’ to Israel

Patrick Wintour

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the chair of the UK foreign affairs committee Alicia Kearns said the government must suspend arms sales to Israel and claimed ministers were no longer saying that Israel was complying with international humanitarian law, merely that it had the capacity to do so.

“I believe we have no choice but to suspend arms sales and it is important that the public understands this is not a political decision as some people want to present it as,” she said.

“Legal advice is advisory so the government can choose to reject it but UK arms export licences require a recipient to comply with international humanitarian law. That is why emergency handbrakes exist in terms of change of circumstances.”

She added: “There is nothing anti-Israeli, much less antisemitic, in taking a tougher line with the Netanyahu government. The reality is that how Israel prosecutes this war, that is the problem we have. We support their right to self-defence but they are making themselves and us less safe in the way they are doing it.”

You can read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here.

UK house prices fall for first time in six months amid more costly mortgages

Julia Kollewe

UK house prices fell in March for the first time in six months as more costly mortgage deals and continued uncertainty about when the Bank of England would start cutting interest rates hit the property market.

A typical home now costs £288,430, around £2,900 less than last month, said Halifax, which is part of Lloyds Banking Group. The monthly drop, the first since September, came after a 0.3% gain in February.

The survey is split into analysis across English regions and the nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Halifax survey shows that Northern Ireland remained the region or nation with the highest house price growth in the UK – with prices up by 4.3% on an annual basis. Properties in Northern Ireland now cost an average of £194,743, which is £7,972 more than a year ago.

In Wales, annual price growth slowed to 1.9% in March, from 3.9% in February, with the average home now costing £219,213. Scotland house prices rose 2.1% year-on-year to stand at £204,835.

A rival survey from Nationwide building society showed that the average UK house price fell by 0.2% month on month in March.

Mortgage rates for borrowers were at 5.55% for an average two-year fixed-rate deal in January as lenders vied for new business.

Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the Aslef trade union has been doing the media round as train drivers in England begin another series of strikes.

He rejected the idea that strikes were putting the travelling public off rail transport, saying footfall and revenue were coming back after the pandemic.

Speaking from a picket line outside Euston station in London, he confirmed to Sky News that there were no further talks scheduled with either train companies or ministers, and said “taxpayer should put their anger where it belongs – with the people that won’t come to the table.”

He told viewers that train drivers haven’t had a pay increase for half-a-decade, and that:

In a cost of living crisis, we believe, like all other sectors, that people have a right to increase in pay. The people that we actually work for are declaring hundreds of millions of pounds in profits, paying dividends to their shareholders, but not paying their workers. And this is compounded by the fact that this is a Westminster problem, with a dogmatic government that doesn’t want a resolution and doesn’t care about the travelling public.

He said support from the public for the strike had been great, adding ““We haven’t had one disgruntled person come up to this line yet.”

Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, was also on the media round today, and was asked about the reported situation with William Wragg, and essentially limited her comments to saying that “it is very concerning in terms of MPs’ safety” while urging anybody with any information to go to the police. She said it was good that it was being investigated thoroughly.

William Wragg has told the Times that he gave out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on a dating app in what appears to have been a “spear-phishing” cyber-attack.

Asked about the situation during the morning media round, Treasury minister Gareth Davies said: “It is extremely troubling.”

PA Media reports he told GB News that Wragg had apologised, and that “we are alive to any threat that can occur against MPs and we have resources in place to tackle that”, adding: “I would just say to anybody watching that feels they’re in a similar position, if they ever feel like they’re being compromised or blackmailed, they should report that to the police.”

Politico reported that the 12 targets it had confirmed so far included three MPs, two political journalists, a broadcaster, four party staff, a former Tory MP and an all-party parliamentary group manager. The targets include members of the Conservative and Labour parties.

On Times Radio Davies said Wragg “is continuing as a Conservative MP, and it’s right that there’s investigation into what happened. He’s rightly apologised, and, as I say, that’s a matter for Will Wragg and the party generally.”

Hello, and welcome to our live UK politics coverage for Friday. It is Easter recess in Westminster and in all the devolved governments, so the diary is quite light, although local election campaigning continues in England ahead of the 2 May vote.

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It is Martin Belam here with you today. You can email me at [email protected] – especially if you have spotted my inevitable errors and typos, or you think I’ve missed something important.