Rishi Sunak says he told China actions to undermine British democracy are ‘completely unacceptable’

The presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in parliament has been confirmed.

A parliamentary spokesperson told PA reporters:

As part of routine ongoing investigations Raac was identified in one area of the palace.

Structural engineers have confirmed there is no immediate risk. Where Raac is found, mitigations will be put in place as necessary.”

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, has claimed that no one has produced a viable alternative to the government’s much-criticised Troubles legacy bill.

The Northern Ireland Troubles (legacy and reconciliation) bill, which is set to finish its passage through parliament imminently, would offer limited immunity for some perpetrators of crimes committed during the Northern Ireland Troubles. It is opposed by all parties in Northern Ireland and by the Irish government, which is thinking of challenging it at the European court of human rights.

Heaton-Harris acknowledged the opposition to the bill today, but said no one had come up with a better idea for resolving legacy issues. At an event with Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach (Irish PM); and Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president for interinstitutional relations, where they were unveiling new funding for Northern Ireland (see 4.30pm), Heaton-Harris said:

Lots of people ranged against the legacy bill, but no-one has an alternative for what could possibly replace it, and no one can tell me that the current situation that has been running for the last 25 years has been satisfactory to the families of victims either.

So I fully acknowledge this is not perfect. I’ve met with an awful lot of people who lost loved ones in the Troubles, I’ve met with people who had family members maimed, I’ve met with people who are truly victims, I cannot put myself in their shoes.

But 25 years on, some of these families will have been looking for answers [from] when the Troubles commenced – you could say the best part of 40 or 50 years – and haven’t really received them.

This is an honest and true attempt to try and get information for those families.

Varadkar said there was still time for the government to pause the bill. He said:

I had a chance to meet with the secretary of state today and once again expressed the Irish government’s opposition to the legacy bill.

It isn’t law yet, it still has to pass through the House of Lords and receive royal assent. Once again, I appealed to the UK government to pause this, we don’t think it is the right thing to do.

That’s all from me for today. My colleague Donna Ferguson is now taking over.

As expected, unions at the TUC in Liverpool passed a motion calling for “a strategy of non-compliance and non-cooperation” with the Strikes Act, the new legislation imposing minimum service levels in key public services during strikes.

The RMT leader, Mick Lynch, told delegates: “That’s what we have to do – that’s the message. We are a fighting union movement and we are going to turn this legislation over.”

Unions believe the new law, which allows employers to specify which workers must turn up on strike days, is unworkable in its present form.

The TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, has stressed that it is not encouraging workers to disobey the law – but the TUC has reported the legislation to UN watchdog the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and will seek to defend any striking worker sacked for failing to comply.

The motion calls for a special conference once full details of how the legislation will be implemented to decide how unions can best resist it.

Sunak says he also used the summit to express his opposition to Chinese interference with the work of parliament during a meeting with Li Qiang, the Chinese prime minister. He says he was emphatic that “actions which seek to undermine British democracy are completely unacceptable and will never be tolerated”.

UPDATE: Sunak said:

The sanctity of this place must be protected and the right of members to speak their minds without fear or sanction must be maintained.

We will defend our democracy and our security.

So I was emphatic with Premier Li that actions which seek to undermine British democracy are completely unacceptable and will never be tolerated.

I also emphasised the UK’s unyielding commitment to human rights and I was clear on the importance of maintaining stability and international law as the basis for stable relations.

Sharon Graham, the Unite leader, has used her speech at TUC Congress to urge Labour to nationalise the energy sector. She said:

Energy privatisation has failed, pure and simple. It has crippled our communities and what remains of our industrial base. There is only one credible answer. We need to take our energy back into public hands. And friends, don’t let anyone tell you that we cannot afford it: it will cost us £90bn to take our energy back into public ownership. We’re a £2.5tn economy. Of course it’s affordable: it is a choice.

She also had a direct dig at Labour, accusing them of being “too timid to talk of hope, too conservative to make change”.

While spending limits become austerity-lite, when you refuse to even discuss taking back control of our national assets and you’re watering down your own promises to give workers a voice. If you lose sight of what you’re in there to do, then you are not seeing whose side you should be on and what we created you for.

Most other Labour-affiliated unions here in Liverpool have been publicly supportive of Keir Starmer’s party, hailing his promises on workers’ rights - despite some concerns about issues such as taxation.

Tim Loughton (Con) says that, despite being sanctioned by the Chinese, he has not been briefed on this case. He says he learnt more about the man accused of spying for China from his son than from the security authorities. That is because his son was at university with the accused man, he says.

He asks if China will be in the enhanced tier of countries in the foreign influence registration scheme being set up under the National Security Act. (See 11.29am.)

Dowden says there is a “strong case” for this, but that he is not in a position to announce the decision now.

UPDATE: I have corrected the last paragraph in the post above. Originally it quoted Dowden as saying there was a strong case to be made that he should not answer that question at the dispatch box. But having listened to the tape again, it is clear that he said there was a strong case (for designating China as a state of concern) but that he should not make an announcement at the dispatch box. (First time round, I did not hear the “but”).

Dowden said:

We are currently reviewing which countries are within that enhanced tier. I think there is a strong case to be made. But you would not expect me to make that announcement from the dispatch box until we have gone through the proper process in respect of it.

Liz Truss, the former PM, says these reports are extremely worrying. She says the government needs to recognise that China is “the largest threat, both to the world and the United Kingdom, for freedom and democracy”. She say the government should designate it as such.

Dowden says China is a systemic challenge. It is also the number one state-based threat to economic security, he says.

UPDATE: Truss said:

These are extremely worrying reports about the level of infiltration of Chinese-supported forces into our democracy. Does [Dowden] agree that what we need to do is to recognise that China is the largest threat, both to the world and to the United Kingdom, for freedom and democracy? And does he not agree that the government should designate it as such?

And Dowden replied:

She is absolutely right that China represents a systemic challenge to our interests and values, and it is also the case, for example, in respect of our economic security, it is the number one state-based threat to our economic security.

What I would say to her is that the government is absolutely clear-eyed about the threats that this nation faces and robust in taking action. Indeed that is why I personally took the decisions in respect of banning Huawei from our 5G networks, in respect of Chinese CCTV technology, and indeed in relation to TikTok.

We will continue to take whatever steps are necessary based on appropriate advice to provide that protection for our nation and our democratic institutions.

Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM, is making his statement to MPs about the research arrested on suspicion of spying.

He says the researcher and another individual were arrested as part of a counterterrorism investigation. He says these are serious allegations and it is right they are being investigated. MPs must not prejudice that inquiry, he says.

He says the UK must be able to call out unacceptable behaviour by China directly.

But actions speak louder than words, he says. That is why he banned Chinese IT companies from the government estate, and banned TikTok from government devices, he says.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has told Bloomberg that it is “unlikely” that he will have more fiscal firepower this autumn to fund tax cuts or higher spending. Graeme Wearden has the story on his business live blog.

Keir Starmer has rejected suggestions that he is too focused on emulating Tony Blair.

The Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said at the weekend that Starmer should “consign 1997 to the history books” and that if he was “intent on becoming a 1990s tribute act” he would not lead Britain out of decline. In an article for the Sunday Times she said:

The fact is, adopting the “hands-free” approach won’t deliver the goods. Unlike 1997 the light touch will not produce a magic money tree. The conditions are just not there …

If Labour is intent on becoming a 1990s tribute act in an age where laissez faire does not belong, big questions will remain unanswered.

On a visit to a school in east London, Starmer said the criticism was unfair. Asked about Graham’s comment, he said:

The Labour party is absolutely focused on the future, not the past, and the challenges that we will inherit if we’re privileged enough to go into government.

The central challenge will be growing the economy. Within that is dignity and respect for working people in their working environment.

Asked how he plans to keep unions on side, Starmer said:

The Labour party and the trade unions have had a long relationship together and we had a big session at the beginning of the summer where we agreed policy going forward. So what you’ll see here is a lot of common ground as we go towards what we know will be really huge challenges.

The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has admitted that a “period of turbulence” will follow the introduction of the very controversial default 20mph speed limit for most roads currently set at 30mph.

Speaking at a press conference to mark the start of the new Senedd term, Drakeford said:

I’m reconciled to a period of turbulence when you make a change. I’m also confident that once the policy is operating, people will see it is a sensible and progressive thing to do.

The Welsh Labour leader likened the 20mph scheme, which comes into force on Sunday, to breathalyser tests, the compulsory wearing of seat belts and previous changes to speed limits, which he said were controversial when they were brought in but now “completely accepted”. He added: “It is a relatively small thing to ask that we drive at speeds that save lives.”

The first minister also warned that this Senedd term opens against the “bleakest financial backdrop” in the whole of the devolution period with the Welsh government facing a £900m drop in real terms compared with what was expected at the time of the 2021 spending review. He said difficult decisions about spending were being made by the cabinet and would be announced soon.

Drakeford said other priorities this term included starting the process of reforming the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, making changes to the bus industry and protecting people living in the shadow of disused coal tips.

Scotland’s chief prosecutor has said she would not pursue addicts using a drug consumption room mooted for Glasgow, clearing one of the last remaining legal obstacles to the city hosting the UK’s first legalised site.

Dorothy Bain KC, the lord advocate, announced on today she would formally rule that it was not in the public interest to prosecute addicts carrying small amounts for personal use, if she was asked to.

Bain said it was not her place to authorise a drug consumption room – a site many drugs reform and health campaigners say could help cut Scotland’s soaring drugs deaths, and it did not mean the police would not enforce other laws.

She said:

On the basis of the information I have been provided, I would be prepared to publish a prosecution policy that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility.

[That] will not extend to any criminal offences other than possession of controlled substances, contrary to section 5(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It does not amount to an exclusion zone whereby a range of criminality is tolerated.

[It] has been of the utmost importance to me to ensure that Police Scotland retain the ability to effectively police the facility and ensure that the wider community, those operating the site and those using the facility can be kept safe.

Scottish ministers said that cleared the way for Glasgow’s council, health board and police to set up a so-called safer drug consumption facility as “quickly as possible”.

In response, Elena Whitham, the drug and alcohol policy minister, said in a statement:

This is not a silver bullet. But we know from evidence from more than a hundred facilities worldwide that safer drug consumption facilities work. It is now time to see this approach piloted in Scotland.

The UK government has repeatedly and consistently refused to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act to give the Scottish project legal protection and opposes the policy, despite growing support for a pilot project in England as well as Scotland.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, says he will make a brief statement about a security matter.

MPs will have seen media reports about China and access to the Commons, he says.

He says the Met has confirmed that two men have been arrested and are on bail until October.

He says MPs do not discuss security matters in the chamber.

This is an ongoing, sensitive investigation. Members of course understand that public discussion will be wholly inappropriate.

But he says he wants to assure MPs that the Commons follows the same vetting arrangements as the government.

The small number of MPs who needed to know about this were briefed on it, he says.

He says MPs should not discuss the identity of those involved, speculate about the case, or comment on the details. There is a risk of prejudicing prosecutions, he says.

And he says the media reporting (which in one case has involved a suspect being named) has been “unhelpful”.

Hoyle does not take any questions afterwards.

(In an hour we have a Commons statement on the story from Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM. Quite how MPs are going to get through it without discussing details of the case isn’t clear.)

Some Brexiters were outraged by the sight of large numbers of EU flags being waved at the Last Night of the Proms at the weekend, as Matthew Weaver reports.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson was asked if Rishi Sunak was concerned to see so many EU flags on display at the concert. Without doing the full Harvey Proctor, the spokesperson said:

The prime minister is a proud Brexiteer. He was flying the flag for the UK in India on issues including a free trade deal.

From BMW, to Tata, to CPTPP [the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-pacific partnership], we are seeing the union jack’s prominence around the world, and that’s as a direct result of Brexit.

The Sun has summed this up at Sunak/No 10 taking a swipe at “remoaners”.

More detail has emerged today about ministerial efforts to secure funding from the Treasury to improve the school estate, as the government continues to grapple with the crisis of crumbling concrete in school buildings.

Lord Agnew, who as academies minister 2017-20 was also responsible for school capital spending, told GB News he had about 10 meetings with the Treasury to try to secure a long-term funding envelope, but was turned down.

Agnew said reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or Raac, had been on the agenda for years. He asked the Treasury for a 10-year envelope of money so he could go out to the building industry and they could “tool up” for a school refurbishment programme. He said:

They said it has to sit within the spending review, but I said to them: ‘Well, are we not going to have any schools at the end of the spending review?’

I said: ‘What’s going to happen at the end of the year or the three year spending review? And of course they didn’t have any answer.

MPs on the public accounts committee will this afternoon question the permanent secretary to the Department for Education, Susan Acland-Hood, about the condition of school buildings.

Trade union activists gathering here in Liverpool are enthusiastic about the imminent prospect of a Labour government – but also wary about whether Keir Starmer’s party will deliver the change they want to see.

Paul Nowak, the new TUC general secretary, used his speech to its conference to deliver a scathing attack on the government over its approach to treatment of immigrants. He told delegates:

I am proud to be the grandson of immigrants. Proud of my family, and proud of the contribution that they and millions like them have made to this country.

So, when I hear the home secretary talking of a ‘migrant invasion’, that her dream is to deport people to Rwanda, when I see immigrants housed on a barge with legionella, or hear that the immigration minister ordered a mural for kids painted over, for me it is personal.

Because the real enemies of the working class don’t arrive in a small boat, they fly in by private jet …

Every migrant is my sister, my brother, and this government shames us all because our country should never turn its back on those fleeing persecution, poverty or war.

Nowak also made it clear he would be urging the public to vote for Keir Starmer’s party at the next general election. He said: “I will tell anyone who asks: ‘Vote for the party we named for our movement, vote Labour’”.

But he also called for higher taxes on the rich; and stressed that the TUC expects Labour to fulfil its promise of passing a radical employment bill within its first 100 days.

And here are some more lines from what was said at the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning about China, in addition to the comments already posted (see 12.10pm, 12.20pm and 12.36pm).

• The spokesperson hinted that China woud be invited to the international summit on artificial intelligence (AI) being held in the UK in November. Asked if China would be coming, the spokesperson did not reply directly. But it is understood Sunak believes that AI “knows no borders” and that, if there is a potential threat, as many countries as possible should be involved in countering it.

• The spokesperson implied that James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, was briefed about the arrest of the Commons researcher before his recent visit to China. Asked if Cleverly was told about the case, the spokesperson said that he could not discuss the case, because the investigation was live. But he went on: “You would expect ministers to receive relevant updates on security issues.” Earlier Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and then the Brexit party, and someone with an acute sense of how kneejerk jingoism can be used to attack the government, said on X/Twitter that Cleverly’s trip should not have gone ahead. He said:

If the alleged Chinese spy in Westminster was arrested in March then why did the foreign secretary still visit China this summer?

• The spokesperson would not say whether China will be listed as a state of concern when the full National Security Act comes into force, as the former MI6 boss has suggested it should be (see 10.45am).

• The spokesperson said Rishi Sunak still had full confidence in Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, despite reports saying that he had some dealings with the person accused of spying before he became a minister.

• The spokesperson said it was for the Metropolitan police to decide who was informed about the arrest of the suspected spy. The spokesperson was responding to the claim made by the Tory MP Tim Loughton that parliamentarians sanctioned by China should have been informed. (See 11.29am.)

Unsurprisingly, No 10 rejected suggestions that China should be classed as a threat. At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked the question that is driving Sir Alex Younger to despair (see 10.45am), the PM’s spokesperson said Rishi Sunak was standing by his decision not to describe China in these terms. The spokesperson said:

You’ve heard the prime minister talk about this before. We’ve set out our approach to China. We are always very clear-eyed about the risks. They do represent an epoch-defining challenge to the UK. We do not think it is right to reduce the approach to just one word given we need to take the opportunity to engage with China, not to just shout from the sideline.

As you saw from the prime minister yesterday, he took the opportunity to call them out about some of these reports that we are seeing, left them in no doubt that these sorts of actions are completely unacceptable, and that we will robustly defend our democracy.

Keir Starmer has challenged Rishi Sunak (see 12.04pm) to say whether the government challenged China over the activities of the suspected spy in parliament before this weekend, when Sunak raised it with his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang, at the G20 summit after the story broke in the Sunday Times.

At the morning No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson was asked if Sunak’s conversation with Li was the first time this had been raised at government to government level. The spokesperson replied:

On the issue of interference with democracy, sanction of parliamentarians, no. On this specific case, I can’t get into [it].

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, will make a statement to MPs this afternoon about the arrest of a Commons research on suspicion of spying for China, No 10 said at the morning lobby briefing.

The statement is expected to come at 3.30pm, before Rishi Sunak delivers his own statement to MPs about the outcome of the G20 summit.

I will post more from the lobby briefing shortly.

Keir Starmer has challenged Rishi Sunak to say when the government first confronted China over the case of the Commons researcher arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

Asked about the story during a visit to a school this morning, Starmer replied:

This morning the very big question now for the prime minister … is: was this raised when these arrests took place back in March or has it only been raised now that it’s come into the public domain? I think that’s the central question that needs to be answered by the prime minister today.

Starmer said that he personally only heard about the case “very recently”.

Asked if he thought the government should categorise China as a threat, Starmer replied:

Strategic challenge is I think the right way to describe what we’re confronted with here but that does require that consistency of approach and that’s what’s been lacking …

What we need is a policy that is clear and is settled. And we haven’t had that for the last 10 years. We’ve had division and inconsistency from this government.

The government describes China as an “epoch-defining challenge”. See 9.22am.

Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, told the Today programme this morning that the National Security Act passed earlier this year would help the UK deal with the threat posed by China. He also said the government should categorise China as a country of particular concern under powers in the act.

Here is a summary of the main points he made.

• Younger said that the UK had to be willing to “confront” China, but he implied the debate about whether or not it was a “threat” was too simplistic. (This is a debate that has been live particularly in the Conservative party – see 9.22am.) Asked if China should be designated a threat, he replied:

The first is, I tend to switch off when I hear: ‘It’s a threat, isn’t a threat. We should call it a threat, we shouldn’t call it a threat. James Cleverly should go to China or not.’

We need to, geopolitically, be capable of chewing gum and walking at the same time.

Of course we need to engage with China. Of course we need to compete against China – in a way that it understands competition, by the way, linking economics and politics and security all together.

And sometimes we need to confront China. In my experience, just being nice to them doesn’t get you very far.

He also said the threat/no threat debate “sounds a bit binary and, if I may say so, a bit immature”. He went on:

China’s a fact. It’s a huge country. We’ve got to find ways of engaging with it. We’ve got to find ways of competing with it, economically and technologically. We have to find ways of cooperating in important areas like climate change. And sometimes we have to be absolutely prepared to confront it when we believe that our security interests are threatened. And by the way, that is exactly how they will behave towards us.

• He said the National Security Act 2023 would make it easier for the UK to respond to the threat posed by China. The parliamentary researcher arrested for spying was arrested under the Official Secrets Act, a law passed years ago, but Younger said new legislation was needed to tackle forms of covert intelligence gathering by foreign states not covered by the OSA. He said there used to be activities “that frankly members of the public would just think of as spying, such as working for a foreign intelligence service” that were not illegal. He said the NSA, which became law in the summer, changed that. He explained:

With the introduction of the National Security Act, which I campaigned for along with many colleagues, and I think is a good piece of legislation, you now have the direct criminalisation of undisclosed attempts to influence on behalf of a foreign government, what we would call political interference, with an additional option to specify specific states as being of specific concern in that context.

• He said China should probably be categorised as a state of concern under the terms of the NSA. He said:

If [people] are talking about the specific point of whether China should be designated within the terms of the National Security Act as a particular state of concern, and therefore links to China should mandate additional reporting requirements … my view is probably it should be.

Younger was referring to the way the foreign influence registration scheme will work under the act. Here is a description from a Home Office briefing.

The foreign influence registration scheme (FIRS) is a two-tier scheme which increases transparency of foreign power influence in UK politics and provides greater assurance around the activities of certain foreign powers or entities that are a risk to UK safety or interests. As a result, the UK will be better informed about the nature, scale and extent of foreign influence in the UK.

The political influence tier will require the registration of arrangements to carry out political influence activities in the UK at the direction of a foreign power. The enhanced tier of FIRS gives the secretary of state the power to require registration of a broader range of activities for specified foreign powers or foreign power-controlled entities where this is necessary to protect the safety of interests of the UK.

The scheme contains offences for those who fail to comply with registration requirements, or who act pursuant to unregistered or falsely registered arrangements.

• He said China’s intelligence effort went beyond just trying to get secrets, and included trying to exert influence. He said:

The scope is far broader than anything we would defined as intelligence here. It includes information more broadly and influence. The significance of influence – undisclosed attempts to change the way in which people behave – is underestimated within our system. It’s not something we’re familiar with. It is fundamental to the way China operates.

Asked if hundreds of people might be engaged in trying to secretly influence policy on behalf of China, he replied:

It’s hard. It’s hard to speculate. You can’t prove a negative. I can only say to you that, far more than it would be the case with a democratic country, this is an intrinsic part of of the way in which China seeks to protect its power.

• He said this sort of activity from China would increase. He said:

My suspicion is there will be crude attempts, some of which have been brought to light, some of which would have been subject to warnings by MI5, and there’ll be other more sophisticated attempts. But it’s going to grow.

The parliamentary researcher who has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China has said he is “completely innocent”.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Birnberg Peirce, the man – whom they did not name – said:

I feel forced to respond to the media accusations that I am a ‘Chinese spy’. It is wrong that I should be obliged to make any form of public comment on the misreporting that has taken place.

However, given what has been reported, it is vital that it is known that I am completely innocent. I have spent my career to date trying to educate others about the challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist party.

To do what has been claimed against me in extravagant news reporting would be against everything I stand for.

Good morning. One of the many aspects of politics that has changed dramatically over the past decade is the way the government views China. David Cameron came to power determined to establish warm relations with Beijing, but in recent years relations have deteriorated considerably and a Conservative government that views China with considerable suspicion is being urged by some of its hawkish backbenchers to go much further, and to treat it as a hostile opponent.

The revelation yesterday that a parliamentary researcher linked to the Conservatives has been arrested on spying charges has turbocharged this debate. Understandably, the hawks are feeling vindicated.

As Helen Davidson and Peter Walker report, China has dismissed the news as Sinophobic propaganda. “The claim that China is suspected of ‘stealing British intelligence’ is completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander,” the Chinese embassy in London said.

The Tory hawks want the government to categorise China as a threat. In an update to the integrated review of defence and security published in March, the government instead said it posed “an epoch-defining challenge” (although that was an advance on the previous review, which said the country was a “systemic competitor”.)

This morning Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, was doing a morning interview round and she suggested that toughening the rhetoric used to describe China would be counterproductive. Asked on Sky News whether China was friend or foe, she replied:

China is a country that we do a lot of business with. China is a country that is significant in terms of world economics. It sits on the UN security council. We certainly should not be describing China as a foe but we can describe it as a challenge … I don’t think we should be careless in terms of how we speak about other countries when these sorts of things happen.

She said it was important not to use “language that makes people scared” and to remain diplomatic.

And asked on the Today programme if China should be designated a threat, she suggested that might “escalate” the problem. She said:

Whether or not you use words like threat I think is a reflection of how far you want to escalate things.

China is the second largest economy in the world, it’s heavily integrated in our economy as it is with many of our allies … We’re taking the same approach that those countries are taking.

I will post more from her interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.30am: Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, visits Oxford as part of BMW’s announcement about its plan to produce the electric Mini in the city. Graeme Wearden has more on this on his business live blog.

Morning: Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, visit a school in Dagenham.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Morning: Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, speaks on the first full day of its annual conference in Liverpool.

After 3.30pm: Rishi Sunak is expected to give a Commons statement on the outcome of the G20 summit in India.

After 3.30pm: A minister may give a statement, or have to respond to an urgent Commons question, about the arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for China.

Also, James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, is on the first day of a trip to Israel and Palestine. He is due to meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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