PM urged to reform social care ahead of Queen’s Speech – follow live

Queen Elizabeth will once more preside over the State Opening of Parliament on Tuesday with a speech laying out the government’s legislative priorities for the year ahead.

The address is written by No 10, and is expected to deal with everything from a ban on conversion therapy through to long overdue social care reforms.

Joe Sommerlad takes a closer look at what the monarch is expected to say.

A Tory MP who urged people not be be “litter tossers” has been accused of hypocrisy after he was fined for dropping a cigarette butt.

Richard Holden, MP for Durham North West, was one of two people caught by neighbourhood wardens outside the election count at the Louisa Centre in Stanley, County Durham, on Saturday, and was given a £100 fixed penalty notice.

Last summer, Mr Holden launched a lockdown litter-picking campaign in his constituency, saying it was “unacceptable” that beautiful areas were strewn with rubbish, and he said he backed enforcement action.

Neighbouring Labour MP Kevan Jones, who represents Durham North, which includes Stanley, said today: “It is very hypocritical of him lecturing others on picking up litter when he is doing it himself.”

Mr Holden is yet to comment on the situation.

Former speaker John Bercow is back on our screens, this time to tell us he considers himself a “soft leftist”.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain’s latest host Alastair Campbell, a stanch Labour figure who worked as Tony Blair’s speechwriter, Mr Bercow revealed he voted for Sadiq Khan in London’s mayoral race.

Asked why, Mr Bercow said plainly that Mr Khan was “the best candidate” for the job.

Mr Khan, who scored 40 per cent of first preference votes and 55 per cent of the second, beat Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey to be re-elected as the city’s mayor on Saturday.

The prospective leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UU) has ruled out the possibility of a single unionist party in Northern Ireland, arguing “it does not help unionism for the DUP and the UUP to come together”.

Upper Bann MLA Doug Beattie is the only declared candidate to replace outgoing leader Steve Aiken, who formally resigned from the post on Sunday.

Mr Beattie, a former Army captain, ruled out closer co-operation with the largest unionist party, the DUP, which is also in the process of seeking a new leader.

“Our job is to challenge them and to stand on our own two feet, and we will challenge the DUP on things we know they have got absolutely wrong,” he said. “We will challenge them at every single level. There will not be one unionist party, that is fact.

Conservative MP Damian Green said this morning he was frustrated it had taken so long for social care to be addressed, as the nation awaits details of plans to fix the troubled system.

But Mr Green, who commissioned a government green paper on social care in 2017, warned Sky News that despite government assurances, he does not “expect the full details [to be laid out in] the Queen’s Speech”.

Boris Johnson’s “government produced a white paper on integrating health and social care a couple of months ago and said they would do it this year, which I took as a sign they were going to do it with the comprehensive spending review that we get in the autumn. There’s a certain sense in that,” he said.

The former first secretary of state added people simply have to accept that they will need to pay more towards social care, arguing that while many people agreed more money was needed to address issues in the system, the “political issue” was where that cash will come from.

“Where that money comes from is why it has proved so politically difficult over the decades,” he told the broadcaster. “People have to accept we are all going to have to pay more money, how you do that is the key.”

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has accused the government of inaction over its “levelling up” agenda.

Speaking to the Today show earlier, she said the government has speaking about these plans “for 11 years” but “very little action” has actually been taken.

Commenting on the government’s intention to announce a skills “revolution”, which will allow people to retrain after the pandemic, Ms Nandy said: “It’s great to hear that they want people to be able to retrain, but where are the jobs that people need, the good-quality jobs, not just the jobs, but the good-quality jobs that allow people to earn decent money to look after their families, and to be able to spend in their local communities and on their high streets that sustain all of the things that we really care about?”

She continued: “That’s what we need to hear from the government today. I hope that they come forward with a plan. So far we’ve had very, very little in detail about whether they have a plan or not.”

Matt Hancock said this morning extra resources are needed to address the “significant injustices” in the social care system, but insisted the government has a long term plan.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast the health secretary said: “We put more money into the system each year. We put an extra billion pounds in last year but I think, as a society, we should really look after people in their older age and it is something that we need to put more and more resources into.”

The election for Wiltshire and Swindon police and crime commissioner (PCC) may need to be re-run after the race was won by a candidate who withdrew over an historic driving conviction.

Conservative Party candidate Jonathon Seed received 40 per cent of the vote in the first round and was elected after it went to a second ballot, but will not be able to take up the post. He won 100,003 votes overall.

In a statement released after the result was declared, the election’s returning officer Terence Herbert said he would be considering the next steps after taking appropriate legal advice.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said Mr Seed, who had been hoping to take over from departing Conservative colleague Angus Macpherson, had been “disbarred” after a driving offence had “come to light”.

But in a statement issued on Sunday, Mr Seed insisted that “to the best of [his] knowledge” he had declared his conviction to the party in his application for the role.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he hopes a cap on care costs will be announced in the Queen’s Speech.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme he described the issue as an “incredible worry for a lot of people”.

“I’m hoping to hear that we will introduce a cap on people’s care costs because around one in 10 of us will have catastrophically high care costs,” Mr Hunt said.

“It’s a lottery. You don’t know, that could be you. I think in a civilised society we should find a way of taking away that worry.”

Appearing to rubbish accusations of inequality against the government he added: “I think there’s a big misconception here that this is sort of helping people with expensive houses in the southeast pass on their inheritance.”

Financier Lex Greensill will be quizzed by MPs later today over the collapse of his firm and the lobbying controversy involving former PM David Cameron.

Mr Cameron, who was employed as an adviser to Greensill after leaving the government, will appear before the Treasury Committee on Thursday.

A series of investigations is under way into the role the former Conservative Party leader played in securing Whitehall access for Mr Greensill.

MPs on the cross-party Commons committee will today ask Mr Greensill about the demise of Greensill Capital, which jeopardised 5,000 steelmaking jobs in the UK, and the influence he was given in Whitehall.