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BBC chairman Richard Sharp questioned by Commons culture committee about conflict of interest claims
The Commons culture committee has just started taking evidence from Richard Sharp, the BBC chairman, aBlbout claims that before his appointment he should have declared that he played a role in helping Boris Johnson get access to a £800,000 loan guarantee.
Sharp insists he did not need to declare this, because there was no conflict of interest. He says that all that happened was that when Sam Blyth, a personal friend for years, expressed interest in helping Johnson out with his finances (Blyth is a distant cousin of Johnson’s, wealthy, and had read newspaper reports saying Johnson was short of cash), Sharp put him in touch with Simon Case, the cabinet secretary. Sharp was working as an adviser in No 10 at the time.
Sharp offered a full account of his involvement here.
Normally the opposition appoints spokespeople to shadow government ministers. But Labour already has a cabinet-rank spokesperson for climate change and net zero, Ed Miliband, and so if Rishi Sunak does create an energy department, you could argue he will be creating a cabinet post to “shadow” a structure Labour has in place already.
Miliband, who was energy secretary in the last Labour government, says what really needs to change as the policy. In a series of tweets, he makes the same argument as Greenpeace UK and Ed Davey, and even adopts the “deckchairs on the Titanic” simile used in the Greenpeace statement. (See 9.29am.)
Henry Zeffman from the Times has more on Rishi Sunak’s passion for science.
According to Sky’s Sam Coates, William Hague, the former Tory leader, Rishi Sunak’s predecessor as MP for Richmond in Yorkshire and one of the Tories whose advice Sunak rates most highly, has been calling for the establishment of a new government department to promote science and innovation.
Greenpeace UK has put out a statement saying that, without policy change, just creating a stand-alone energy department is pointless. It is exactly what Ed Davey was saying on the Today programme. (See 9.09am.) This is from Doug Parr, director of policy at Greenpeace UK.
As climate disasters intensify, energy costs spiral and the world continues to sink under rising seas, without other fundamental reforms, re-establishing a Department for Energy will be as helpful as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s government policy and underinvestment that is holding back real action on the climate and energy crises, not the departments or ministers in place.
“Unless the new-look Department for Energy is given the freedom and funding to rapidly scale up renewable energy production – both offshore and on – to sure up domestic supply, as well as roll out a nationwide scheme to insulate the tens of millions of energy-wasting homes across the country, what’s the point?
This is from TalkTV’s Kate McCann.
“Next hour or so …” We’ll see. Reshuffles often take longer than expected, because all it takes is one minister to say no, or ask for time to think, and then the whole process gets clogged up. There is already some evidence that this one is not going to be quite as quick as originally expected. (See 8.30am.)
The cabinet will meet at 3pm, Steven Swinford from the Times reports.
Sunak neeeds to change energy policy, not just Whitehall machinery, says Ed Davey
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, was energy secretary in the coalition government, when energy and climate change was a standalone department. In an interview on the Today programme, asked about reports that Rishi Sunak is going to bring back that arrangement (see 8.38am), Davey said Sunak needed to change his policies, not just the Whitehall machinery.
He told the programme:
I do think bringing in energy department back is a positive step.
But, by itself, changing Whitehall machinery doesn’t get you better energy policy. Changing energy policy is also what’s needed. And we’ve not really seen anything to suggest that’s going to happen.
I think since 2015 their energy policy has been a disaster. We haven’t seen the investment in energy efficiency and installation that we should have done, or in renewables. Both of those would have meant that people’s bills would, still be higher because of Putin’s illegal invasion, but would be lower than they are now. That failure on energy policy has been an absolute disaster.
And my worry with this prime minister is while he might bring back a department focused on energy that could help deliver a change in policy, he’s announced some quite anti-renewable views during his leadership campaign. I just hope he drops those.
The BBC’s Chris Mason has more on the proposed changes to the departmental infrastructure around Whitehall.
The three existing departments expected to face restructuring are business, international trade and culture.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which is led by Michelle Donelan, is expected to keep responsibility for the online safety bill, even if a new science and digital department is created, my colleague Jessica Elgot reports.
What Sunak said about creating new Department of Energy during Tory leadership campaign
When he stood for the Tory leadership in the summer, Rishi Sunak proposed re-establishing a department of energy as part of his “energy sovereignty strategy”. Here is an extract from the news release carrying the announcement. He said he would:
Bring in a new legal target to achieve ‘energy sovereignty’ by 2045 at the latest, ensuring the UK produces as much energy as it uses, with the aim of reaching the target even sooner. The new target will sit alongside the existing net zero emissions target to ensure there’s a balanced approach to driving down bills and protecting the environment.
Establish a new energy security committee to coordinate cross-government action ahead of the winter to keep critical power stations online and protect UK gas reserves. The committee will also be tasked with reforming the UK’s energy markets to cut bills.
Re-establish a Department of Energy by splitting up the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), with a new secretary of state charged with delivering energy sovereignty.
Energy and climate change used to be a stand-alone department until it was merged with BEIS in 2016.
Cabinet meeting ‘delayed until afternoon’, Sky reports
Today’s cabinet meeting has been postponed until this afternoon, Sky’s Sam Coates reports.
Normally cabinet starts at 9.30am, but overnight there were reports that it was being delayed until 10.30am, to allow new appointments to be made first. Either those reports were based on a duff briefing, or else Rishi Sunak may have concluded that the reshuffle will take longer than planned.
Andrew Mitchell, the development minister, has been on media round duties this morning, primarily to talk about the British response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Asked about the reshuffle, and whether he wanted to be the next party chairman, he told GB News:
Well, these are matters way above my pay grade and they are matters for the prime minister, but I’m very happy indeed doing a job which I’ve done before and loved very much, which is the international development job and I’m going to do my best, particularly today, to see that Britain puts its shoulder to the wheel and that we save as many lives as we can.
Here is our story by my colleagues Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot about the reshuffle.
And here is an extract.
The prime minister is also believed to be considering a shake-up of Whitehall by splitting the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy into two or three new departments to better reflect his priorities.
The changes are likely to take place on Tuesday morning, with sources saying the morning cabinet meeting has been moved back to 10.30am.
Sources suggested that there could be a new energy department, with business and trade merged and a separate science and digital department too, with responsibilities removed from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. However, the Guardian understands that cabinet ministers whose departments are affected do not appear to have been pre-warned.
Rishi Sunak to hold limited cabinet shuffle
Good morning. When Rishi Sunak became prime minister, he appointed a cabinet but, given that Liz Truss had done the same less than two months previously, he did not make as many changes as he might otherwise have done, and it looked like a cabinet crafted in the interests of party management, not to suit his own priorities. This morning he is expected to announce a limited reshuffle, partly to fill the vacancy created when he sacked Nadhim Zahawi as party chairman, and so we should end up with a cabinet with more of a Sunak flavour.
The Sun and the Times had the story last night. This is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.
And these are from the Times’ Steven Swinford.
The announcements are expected soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Richard Sharp, chairman of the BBC, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee about his appointments, and claims of a potential conflict of interest.
10.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
3.20pm: Peers resume their debate at the report stage of the public order bill.
I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
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