Inside Politics: Triple locked?

Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

During his bushtucker trial last night Matt Hancock was surrounded by snakes in a confined space. Given he usually spends most of his days at Westminster it was surprising that he didn’t come away with all the stars.

Our chief politics commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for:

Rishi Sunak is at the first official day of the G20 Summit in Bali, which is mainly an excuse for a number of face-to-face “bilats”, or bilateral meetings with other world leaders. At home, the Commons sits at 11.30am, starting with Treasury questions to Jeremy Hunt, ahead of Thursday’s autumn statement. Labour then chooses two subjects for this afternoon’s debates.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, will be questioned by the European Scrutiny Committee on the Northern Ireland protocol and retained EU law at 2pm.

Finally, Richard Burgon, Labour, will open an adjournment debate (that is, a general discussion) about “the potential merits of enabling the public to call a general election” through a kind of petition-referendum.

Triple locked

While you were asleep, Rishi Sunak condemned Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine as “barbaric” as he faced down Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

Facing Lavrov in the plenary hall on day one of the summit, the prime minister called on Moscow to “get out of Ukraine and end this barbaric war” as he blamed the conflict for worsening global economic challenges.

The conflict in Ukraine and how to end it will dominate exchanges at this year’s two-day summit, opened by Indonesian president Joko Widodom, who warned that the world would not be able to move forward “if the war does not end”. Sunak had drinks and nibbles with Justin Trudeau, his Canadian counterpart, after arriving in Bali on Monday and has more talks today.

Back at home, Thursday’s Budget remains the only story in town. One of the main criticisms of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s September disaster was that they didn’t do enough to prepare the ground for the measures contained within the then chancellor’s statement, which caused a meltdown in the markets.

Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, are taking no such chances this time around and the volume of leaks and hints coming out of Downing Street about what we can expect from Hunt later in the week is enough to make the likes of Truss blush.

This morning it seems that there is some certainty on the pensions triple lock, following weeks of speculation about whether or not it would face the axe. Sunak said that pensioners were “at the forefront of my mind” and promised that the chancellor’s tax-and-spend plans had “fairness and compassion” at heart. He continues to face calls to raise benefits in line with inflation too. There are also reports today the living wage will be increased to help those on low incomes and that councils will be given powers to raise taxes without the need for a vote as they try to get to grips with rampant inflation.

Labour leader Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, have given an interview to the i, saying that the government should hike taxes on huge multination companies such as Amazon and Google, rather than working people, to help fill the black hole in the public finances.

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Stories about – or concerning – the behaviour of justice secretary and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab are just not going away.

Last night Simon McDonald, who worked closely with Raab when they were both at the Foreign Office, agreed that the characterisation of him as someone who could bully was “plausible”.

In an interview with LBC Radio, McDonald also described Raab as “a tough boss” and “one of the most driven people I have ever worked for”.

There more concerning reports for Downing Street, however, are that senior officials at the Cabinet Office - including Simon Case, the boss, were made aware of complaints against Raab in his previous roles.

Sunak defended Raab yesterday, saying that he “didn’t recognise” the claims.

Sunak says he doesn’t recognise Dominic Raab as a bully and is not aware of any complaints against the justice secretary.

“I don’t recognise that characterisation of Dominic and I’m not aware of any formal complaints about him. Of course, there are established procedures for civil servants if they want to bring to light any issues.”

Pippa Crerar, Guardian politics editor, hears Raab was on a civil service list concerning his behaviour.

“McDonald had several informal conversations with head of Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team during that period. One government source says the minister ‘was definitely on their list’.”

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