Labour renews call for ‘proper’ windfall tax as Shell declares record £32.2bn profit – UK politics live

The Northern Ireland Office has published further details of the statutory inquiry it is setting up in to the Omagh bombing. The inquiry is going ahead in response to a court judgment ruling that, under the European convention on human rights, some form of investigation was needed. The legal case was brought by Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the bombing.

The NIO said in a news release:

The Real IRA claimed responsibility for the Omagh Bombing in 1998, and four members of the Real IRA were subsequently found liable for the bombing in civil proceedings held in Northern Ireland. This inquiry does nothing to counter these findings, which are clear in who was responsible for this awful atrocity.

The independent statutory inquiry will examine the four issues identified by the high court; the handling and sharing of intelligence, the use of cell phone analysis, whether there was advance knowledge or reasonable means of knowledge of the bomb, and whether disruption operations could or should have been mounted, which may have helped prevent the Real IRA’s attack.

Yesterday Boris Johnson, the former PM, implicitly criticised the UK government for not supplying Ukraine with military jets. No 10 has argued it would take too long to train the pilots, but Johnson told the Atlantic Council thinktank:

I hear that an objection to their having sophisticated western planes to fly is that they wouldn’t know how to use them.

I have to say, I take that argument with a bit of a pinch of salt.

I don’t think it’ll take the Ukrainians very long to work out how to use F-16s or Typhoons or whatever we have to give them.

Asked about Johnson’s comments, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the lobby briefing that the fastest training programme for a jet pilot took around three years, and that five years was normal. He said:

We will continue listening to the Ukrainians and consider what is right for the long term.

But it’s helpful to understand the situation, that the fastest training programme for a new pilot is approximately 35 months.

The current UK fast jet training programme takes five years.

Downing Street refused to comment on Dave Penman’s claim that some officials who worked for Dominic Raab suffered mental health crises. (See 10.01am.) Asked about what the FDA general secretary said, the PM’s spokesperson said:

The prime minister felt that once formal complaints were raised, it was right to have an independent person, a respected KC, to look into it. That’s what’s happening now.

I’m not going to comment on the reports, seeing as that process is taking place.

No 10 says revelations about British Gas forcing vulunerable customers on to prepayment meters ‘deeply shocking’

Jessica Elgot

At the lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the Times revelations about British Gas forcing customers to have prepayment meters (see 9.17am) were “deeply shocking and concerning”. He went on:

Vulnerable families should not be treated so poorly.

The findings suggest British Gas has failed to use every possible avenue to support those struggling with their energy bills, as they rightly deserve and are entitled to.

Graham Stuart, the energy minister, is due to meet executives from British Gas to discuss the situation this afternoon.

It is understood that Stuart called the Ofgem chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, early this morning to discuss the revelations. Sources at the business department said Stuart demanded Ofgem explain their role in this and ensure they take urgent remedial action. They said ministers were particularly keen to ensure the regulator asked “more searching questions” of the energy companies during their future investigations.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesperson defended the current scope of the windfall tax on energy companies. Labour says the profits declared by Shell today show why it should be higher, or more extensive. (See 9.17am.) Asked about this issue, the PM’s spokesperson said:

We recognise that the public will think these are extraordinary profits, clearly. That’s why once it was clear that there would be a windfall because of various factors including the war in Ukraine, we put in place the energy profits levy.

The new headline 75% tax rate is comparable with other North Sea tax regimes including Norway, and we think that strikes a balance between funding cost of living support while encouraging investment in order to bolster the UK energy security.

The spokesperson also said there were no plans to increase the windfall tax.

The Department for Education has today unveiled plans to reform the social care system for children in England. My colleague Patrick Butler wrote a preview of the plans here.

Here is the DfE’s news release. And here is the ‘Stable homes, built on love’ strategy and consultation document.

Responding to a Commons statement about the plan, Helen Hayes, the shadow children’s minister, said this did not amount to the “radical reset” that was needed. She said:

While some additional funding is welcome, this is not the radical reset the review demanded and which we need.

There is no vision for the direction of children’s social care, there is no ambition for our most vulnerable children, there is no cross-cutting commitment from the top of government to deliver better for every child and every care-experienced person in every part of our country.

This government has spent months legislating to restrict the fundamental rights to protest and to strike but has chosen not to make time to legislate to strengthen protections for children.

In response, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said the plans were the “start of the journey” and the government needed to consider what worked and what didn’t.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has told MPs in a statement that the government will establish an independent statutory inquiry into the Omagh bombing in 1998, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, claims today’s interest rate hike (see 12.18pm) amounts to a “Tory mortgage penalty”. In a statement she says:

With households already paying a Tory mortgage penalty, families across the country will be worried about what rising interest rates today mean for them.

The reality is that under the Tories, growth is on the floor, families are worse off and we are stuck in the global slow lane.

We do not have to continue on this path of managed decline when Britain has so much potential to grow and thrive.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has issued a statement backing the Bank of England’s decision to raise interest rates by 0.5 percentage points, to 4%. He said this would help the government achieve its aim of halving inflation this year. He said:

Inflation is a stealth tax that is the biggest threat to living standards in a generation, so we support the Bank’s action today so we succeed in halving inflation this year.

We will play our part by making sure government decisions are in lockstep with the Bank’s approach, including by resisting the urge right now to fund additional spending or tax cuts through borrowing, which will only add fuel to the inflation fire and prolong the pain for everyone.

My colleague Graeme Wearden has more on his business live blog.

The Times has commissioned polling to mark Rishi Sunak’s 100 days in office, and, if anything, it will make even gloomier reading for Downing Street than the Guardian write-through. (See 11.41pm.) The Times reports:

Seven in ten (72 per cent) believe he will not be prime minister after the next election, while just 27 per cent think he has done well so far. However, the YouGov polling also found that by a margin of 14 points voters think Sunak has been a better prime minister than Johnson.

Here is the Times graphic showing whether voters think Sunak is doing well or badly on five key issues.

Almost two thirds of people think Sunak is a better prime minister than Liz Truss, the poll suggests. But only a third believe that he is better than Boris Johnson. (By the time he left office, Johnson was mired in scandal, and his ratings were dire, and if a majority of people think Sunak is no better, then he is in real trouble. But perhaps people responding to this question are thinking of the Johnson premiership in its totality, and giving him credit for things like the vaccine programme.)