Tag Archives: childcare

Sunak’s ‘inadvertent’ conflict of interest shows he is not fit to govern

Childcare shareholder Akshata Murty and her husband, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak: her firm should forgo any benefit from the new Tory policy, just to rid itself of the stain of corruption with which he has tarred it. And his serial “inadvertency” means he is not fit to govern.

Rishi Sunak and his government gets away with it – yet again.

I think this comment on the latest Tory corruption saga is highly relevant:

Yes, this is the story of how a new government policy, announced in the spring Budget, was geared to give huge amounts of money to a childcare company in which Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty has shares; he and his family would have benefited – but he did not declare it.

This is a breach of the Ministerial Code and an investigation was duly requested.

Now, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has reported back – and said the failure to declare the conflict of interest was “inadvertent”. No further action will be taken.

In fairness, Sunak made a grovelling apology for failing to reveal that this government policy would make his family richer:

And the Prime Minister’s press secretary has said: “The commissioner’s investigation into the Prime Minister’s declaration of interest has been resolved by way of rectification. The Prime Minister takes seriously his responsibilities to register and declare all relevant interests.”

That’s all very well, but Sunak and his family are set to benefit from his omission to mention this interest, and that isn’t right. Nobody should use a position of power to feather their own nest.

So Ms Murty’s firm should be excluded from the list of those that are to benefit from this government policy – if only to rid itself (and the Tory government) of the stain of corruption with which Sunak has tarred it. Right?

Isn’t it odd that we don’t see that happening?

And it seems Sunak leads a government that is guilty of serial inadvertency:

That’s a lot of forgetfulness.

It encourages me to believe that none of these Tories are likely to remember important facts when they are needed – and this could cause serious harm to the UK and its people, given the seriousness of the crises we are currently being forced to endure.

By their own admission, Sunak and his party are not fit to govern.

Labour links up with the Tories to betray democracy and make UK a police state

Sad: once again, Labour has proved this to be true.

The Labour Party has again proved how harmful it is – and not just by supporting the Tory bid to kill democracy.

But let’s start with thatanyway. On June 13, 2023, the Conservative government ended democratic government in the UK by reversing a change in its Public Order Act that had been approved by Parliament, using secondary legislation – a ‘ministerial decree’ – that is not ratified by a vote.

It means the changes imposed on new laws during their passage through Parliament may now be pointless, because the government may simply – and unilaterally – reverse them all after they gain Royal Assent.

We might as well not bother having a Parliament any more.

The Green Party’s Baroness Jenny Jones tried to safeguard democracy by tabling a ‘fatal motion’ that would have put a stop to the ‘ministerial decree’. This was the only way to force a vote on it.

But she needed support from Labour peers to win that vote – and Labour said it would not help because that would go against some old Parliamentary convention. It’s the flimsiest excuse ever.

Instead, Labour offered up a lame ‘motion of regret’, paying lip service to the idea of opposition by saying the party does not approve but actually doing nothing at all to stop the Tories from trampling all over democracy.

The disappointment – no, the disgust – is huge, especially from one Labour Lord:

He was an exception. Most Labour peers did as Lord Coaker describes in the following video clip which triggered a particularly strong response from the CWU’s Peter Stefanovic:

Peter had campaigned to make people aware of the ‘fatal motion’, and to get us to urge the Labour peers to support it, since Baroness Jones tabled it. You can feel his bitterness and anger welling up in the following tweet and as one of the signatories, This Writer shares it:

But there’s more.

This isn’t even Labour’s only betrayal of the day.

It seems that, in another attempt to claim “fiscal responsibility” from the Tories, Labour has decided to take away support for childcare from millions of parents, making it impractical for them to go out to work for a living. It’s a blow against millions of families and crippling to the UK’s struggling economy, and Keir Starmer’s party has the nerve to claim it’s a sign of responsibility.

Thank goodness Jeremy Corbyn is settling into his new role of pointing out that Keir Starmer and his people are hateful:

Of course it’s yet another u-turn for Starmer:

How many’s that, now?

Still… Out with an old promise; in with a new one. Right?

Here’s the new promise of the day – and a spot opinion on it.

In fact, I think Labour might actually stick with this one because a Labour government wouldn’t have to pay for it.

In spite of all of the above, there is one way – just one – in which Labour can still claim to be of use to the UK population at large…

… that is by flagging up the failures of the Tory government with facts and figures.

But don’t expect a Labour government under Keir Starmer to ever do anything to improve the situation because all he has to offer are missed opportunities and broken promises.


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The news in brief: Vox Political’s morning round-up for June 1, 2023

Paul Whitehouse, Lee Mack and Steve Coogan at Lake Windermere: here are three protesters who would be criminalised by Suella Braverman for causing “more than minor” disruption to other people’s day-to-day activities.

Right to protest: UK politicians urged to ‘do the right thing’

Peter Stefanovic’s emotional video clip demands that members of all Opposition parties in the House of Lords support Jenny Jones’s ‘fatal motion’ and kill Suella Braverman’s bid to stifle everybody’s right to protest with an undemocratic ‘Ministerial decree’. Let’s give him a moment to explain it:

Government hasn’t spoken to strikers since January

The general secretary of rail union ASLEF says the government hasn’t spoken to its representatives in almost five months because the Tories aren’t interested in ending strike action on the railways:

43 MPs throw support behind justice for WASPI women

From the i:

So far 43 MPs have written to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), calling for a speedy conclusion to its review of how much damage was caused by the way the pension age changes were communicated to women born in the 50s, and for fair compensation.

Among the 43 MPs are Ranil Jayawardena of the Conservatives, former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron, former Labour Party chair Ian Lavery and Caroline Lucas of the Green Party.

The PHSO could recommend compensation anywhere from £100 to £10,000 or more per person.

Women born in the 50s claim they were not given enough notice that their state pension age would rise from 60 to 65, in line with men. It then moved to 66 for both sexes.

Many women retired early or made life-changing decisions based on getting their pension at 60. The ramifications of the policy change and lack of notice has left them in emotional and financial distress, they say.

Their plight is under review by the PHSO, which has already found the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guilty of maladministration for failing to sufficiently inform the women about the state pension age changes.

Though the PHSO maintains its investigation is fair and impartial, it decided to take another look at its findings after recognising part of the report was legally flawed. This move has raised hopes of a higher compensation award, although it is not guaranteed.

As Waspi awaits the results of the review, which could come before summer, it is urging supporters to contact their MP to put pressure on the PHSO to “complete the investigation with a sense of urgency” and make “fair” recommendations for compensation.

Latest Universal Credit change will leave parents worse-off

From The Canary:

BBC News reported that the DWP will be rolling out a change to the amount it pays in childcare costs to parents/guardians. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced it in his Spring Budget. Until now, the department has paid £646 a month, per kid, towards childcare costs under Universal Credit. Now, as BBC News wrote:

The government will allow parents on the benefit to claim back £951 for childcare costs for one and £1,630 for two or more children – a 47% increase.

Universal Credit’s increase in childcare costs payments is still nonsense.

The cost of childcare is huge:

  • For full-time childcare, the average cost is £285 a week.
  • For part-time, it’s £148 a week.

The DWP’s £951 maximum for one child is per Universal Credit assessment period. That’s usually a calendar month – running from the same date one month to the next. So, on that basis the department would pay, at the most, £219 a week.

This is £66, or 23%, short of the average costs. Meanwhile, in 2022 parents were already paying out up to two-thirds of their wages on childcare.

DWP secretary of state Mel Stride has trumpeted about the news. Stride said: “These changes will help thousands of parents progress their career without compromising the quality of the care that their children receive. By helping more parents to re-enter and progress in work, we will be able to cut inactivity and help grow the economy.”

Stride’s claim of the DWP ‘helping parents re-enter’ work is based on parents effectively being worse off in work.

Labour policy pledges need a 3p income tax rise

From the i:

Labour’s policy pledges so far would cost the equivalent of a 3p rise in income tax, i analysis reveals.

Sir Keir Starmer has promised not to borrow for day-to-day spending, and to bring down the size of the overall public debt pile as a percentage of GDP.

Analysis by i suggests that Labour’s policies will require an additional £20bn of funding every year – the equivalent of raising the basic rate of income tax by more than 3p – beyond that already promised through small tax increases such as imposing VAT on private school fees and ending non-domiciled tax status.

Labour’s biggest recurring spending commitment is to extend free childcare to all children aged 11 and under, promised by shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson earlier this year. The IPPR think-tank estimates the cost at almost £18bn, although taking into account the Government’s own childcare plans announced at the last Budget the net cost would be more like £13.6bn. The party said that an expansion of childcare to all children is not its current policy despite Ms Phillipson’s promise.

The pledge to increase the foreign aid spending target to 0.7 per cent of GDP, after Rishi Sunak cut it to 0.5 per cent, would cost around £5.5bn; party sources say this will only be implemented when it is affordable to do so. Labour has promised to set up a £1bn “contingency fund” for the energy industry, and would also have to spend around £1.7bn on GPs’ salaries if it went through with plans by shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting to nationalise the network of family doctors in England – something which the party now says it will not do.

Other current spending commitments which would total less than £1bn each include increasing the number of mental health workers, recruiting more police officers and setting up breakfast clubs in every primary school.

There’s a lot in the i‘s list that Labour now says it won’t do. Doesn’t this suggest that Keir Starmer is really planning just a continuation of the current neoliberal Conservatism that is pushing the UK further towards ruin every day?

Also, considering the Tories gave £800 billion to very rich people for no very good reason, This Writer can’t see why Labour couldn’t produce £20 billion from the same place, and then tax the rich to keep the books in balance and prevent any inflation.


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Rishi Sunak investigated by standards commissioner over childcare conflict of interest

Partners in (the) climb: Akshata Murty and her husband, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is facing investigation over whether he properly declared his wife’s interest in a childcare agency that may benefit from a new policy announced in the spring Budget.

Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty is listed as a shareholder in Koru Kids, a childcare agency that is likely to benefit from a pilot scheme offered by Jeremy Hunt to incentivise people to become childminders, with £1,200 offered to those who train to become one through an agency.

It is believed that he is being investigated over whether a declaration of interest in this organisation was “open and frank”, under rules set out by the commissioner for standards.

This Site has discussed the situation previously, here. It seems the authorities got around the question of Sunak having to grant permission to be investigated by the independent adviser on ministerial interests (Laurie Magnus) by handing it to the standards commissioner (Daniel Greenberg).

This Writer doubts the investigation will lead to any great censure of Sunak.

The initiative to encourage people to become childminders may very well benefit children and carers alike – because it is calculated to bring more people into the job market, which is what the Tories want.

Ms Murty is not the only business boss who will benefit from it, and indeed Koru Kids is not her only business interest, so it can hardly be argued that the policy was introduced purely as a money-spinner for the prime minister and his family.

Still, he did fail to declare his interest to the Commons Liaison committee when asked, and not only should he be made to apologise and correct the record, but he should also take steps to ensure that every other government minister knows they have an obligation to list their own interests correctly, at appropriate times.

But what will happen next? Keep watching this space…


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Rishi Sunak in possible conflict of interest over childcare policy

Akshata Murty and her husband, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak: they’ve been called into question before, over a firm in which she has shares, that has been operating in Russia.

What’s going on here? Did Rishi Sunak know he had a conflict of interest over childcare policy – and not care – or did he really not realise that the policy related to him?

Here’s The Guardian:

Rishi Sunak is facing questions over a potential conflict of interest after it emerged a childcare firm part owned by his wife is to benefit from major changes in the budget.

The prime minister’s wife, Akshata Murty, is listed as a shareholder in Koru Kids, a childcare agency. Koru Kids is likely to benefit from a pilot scheme offered by Jeremy Hunt to incentivise people to become childminders, with £1,200 offered to those who train to become one through an agency.

Sunak did not mention his wife’s interest when speaking about the childcare changes at his appearance before the liaison committee on Tuesday. He was asked by the Labour MP Catherine McKinnell whether he had anything to declare. “No, all my disclosures are declared in the normal way,” he told McKinnell.

It is understood the Cabinet Office was told about Murty’s interest in Koru Kids previously but it was not deemed necessary to appear on the public register of ministerial interests, which was last updated in June 2022.

The register states that Sunak’s wife owns a venture capital investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK Ltd, without going into detail of any of its shareholdings.

It seems clear that Sunak’s family has a financial interest in Koru Kids, which has benefited from a recent change in government policy.

According to the Ministerial Code, members of the government must ensure that “no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise”.

The Liberal Democrats have written to Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser on ministerial interests, asking him to investigate whether the Code has been broken.

But he cannot open any investigations without the permission of the prime minister – who is Rishi Sunak himself.

You see the problem?

Sunak is saying he hasn’t done anything wrong. But he’s not an impartial judge and this case needs somebody with no interest to judge it.

But Sunak can block that.

So what’s to be done?

Watch this space…

Source: Rishi Sunak’s childcare policy risks conflict of interest with wife’s firm | Rishi Sunak | The Guardian


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Grandparents: snap up this little-known childcare benefit while you can!

Here’s more useful information from Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert:

So there’s no penalty for the parent if they’re working and earning NI credits from that.

Any good?

Universal Credit nightmares: Man unable to feed daughter after unwarned benefit freeze

Is this conscious cruelty or accidental agony? And which is worse?

It seems the Department for Work and Pensions decided that Cezar Zanin, of Bristol, had not provided enough information about a childcare provider – so it cut off his Universal Credit without warning.

He was left unable to feed his daughter Laura, and was forced to borrow money from friends.

(Lucky man. If you want to know what happens to people in this situation who don’t have generous friends, it’s obvious: they die.)

Here’s the real issue, though: Mr Zanin wasn’t sanctioned. He wasn’t given any reason for it. The payments simply stopped.

And it took him a while to realise his payments had ended, meaning increased financial difficulty.

One has to ask what these DWP employees were thinking. Mr Zanin works part-time for the NHS, so he’s doing his bit to improve his situation – but he and his daughter are in temporary accommodation. There’s a clear need.

The DWP itself said payments were suspended because Mr Zanin submitted two childcare receipts for the same month and the department had to check that the payments were genuine.

Why couldn’t anybody tell him that?

So we come back to the question at the top:

Is this conscious cruelty or accidental agony? And which is worse?

Source: Dad left unable to feed his daughter after DWP freezes his Universal Credit payments – Mirror Online

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Mum’s court challenge against DWP demand for UC claimants to go into childcare debt

Why should the Department for Work and Pensions demand that parents on Universal Credit go into debt over childcare costs?

Current rules say parents can get up to £646 per month for each child under 16, funding 85 per cent of their care costs – but they must pay those costs up-front and claim them back later, putting them in debt.

Some end up thousands of pounds in the red.

The DWP says this is to prevent fraud – but there are ways to do this that don’t push people into debt.

Just off the top of This Writer’s head: what’s wrong with having a letter from the provider, saying exactly what the costs will be in advance? That proof is as good as anything else.

The rule may be unlawful, discriminatory, and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (which I should remind readers is nothing to do with the EU and therefore is something by which they UK must still abide).

Now, single mum Nichola Salvato is demanding a judicial review of the DWP’s dodgy rule.

She also happens to be a professional benefits advisor and is supported by Save the Children – so it seems likely that she knows her facts.

But will a ruling against the DWP do any good? Tories aren’t very good at following laws they don’t like – and the general election handed them far too much power to do anything they feel like.

Source: Single mum takes DWP to High Court after Universal Credit hurled her into childcare debt – Mirror Online

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Children will be better-off under a LABOUR government

Sure Start: The Tories tried to get rid of it but Labour will bring it back.

This is the message of today’s (November 9) general election campaigning.

I’ll sum it up succinctly for you:

Labour will reopen 1,000 Sure Start centres that the Tories spitefully closed.

Labour will also expand free childcare to help working families.

Meanwhile, under the Tories, the vast majority of Parliamentary constituencies will receive less funding in 2020 – per pupil – than in 2015. Of the 17 constituencies that will get a raise, 13 are currently held by Conservatives – because the Tories are using the funding system to look after themselves, not your children. One constituency remains static. A further 515 constituencies will suffer savage Tory cuts under a continuing Conservative government.

Research has also shown that the academy system, started by Tony Blair and hugely expanded by the Conservatives, has put the fate of more than 100,000 pupils in the hands of a handful of extremely rich men who have a vast array of powers and little to no oversight from parents, teachers, pupils or local government – and run these schools in their own interests rather than those of the pupils.

These are the facts, and they make one thing clear:

If you love your children, you’ll vote Labour.

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While we were blithering about Brexit, the Tories were punishing the poor – AGAIN

Tory attempts at sleight-of-hand really are astonishing.

We’ve just had two days in which all attention has been concentrated on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, the so-called “meaningful vote” on it, and the vote of “no confidence” in the Conservative government that arose from that.

But the mechanism of government has been working as usual in the background, and a few announcements were allowed to slip out quietly while we were looking the other way. It seems while we’ve been worrying about how Mrs May’s Brexit will affect everybody in the UK, her government has been picking on the poor – as usual:

  • The time at which couples of mixed ages transition onto the state pension has been changed so that, where previously it happened when the older partner reaches state pension age, from May 15 this year it will happen when the younger partner reaches pensionable age. Age UK has described this as a “substantial stealth cut” that could cost some couples £7,000 a year.
  • It was revealed that childcare workers have suffered a real-terms pay cut of five per cent since 2013, and now receive around 40 per cent less than the average female worker. Almost half of childcare workers claim state benefits or tax credits.
  • And, of course, those who are claiming benefits might have trouble finding their local job centre as the DWP may have shut it down. Employment Minister Alok Sharma was recently slated for telling Labour’s Angela Eagle to visit her local job centre when it had been closed by his department.

Meanwhile the death count due to Tory benefits incompetence continues to rise, with the DWP releasing figures showing 21,000 claimants of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) have died while waiting to be assessed.

Despite these fatalities, a report by the Office For Budget Responsibility has revealed that instead of cutting the cost of disability benefits by 20 per cent – as the DWP claimed – PIP has increased costs by 15-20 per cent.

While the Conservative government has been attacking the poor, and especially those on benefits, with nearly nine years of cuts, of which the above are merely the latest – coupled with a propaganda campaign tarring claimants as “skivers”, “work-shy” and “scroungers”, research has shown that Westminster’s policy – of squeezing benefits to force people into any job available – is completely wrong; it is in countries that have a generous benefit system that a culture of strivers flourishes and people in those countries are more likely to look for work and less likely to be dependent on benefits.

But then, we only have the Conservatives’ word that they are trying to “encourage” people into work with their policies.

From what we’ve seen, it’s far more likely they are trying to encourage people into the grave instead.