Call for vote on inquiry into claims Starmer lied over Mandelson dismissed by Labour allies – UK politics live

Emily Thornberry says foreign affairs committee already looking into issue and more documents are due to be published

Keir Starmer will claim this morning that the tide “could be turning” in the battle against shoplifting. He is due to speak at an event outside London and, according to the No 10 overnight briefing, he will say:

Working people, grafters – go to work, do the right thing, keep our high streets thriving, and yet too often they are abused or assaulted by people who think they can get away with it and just cheat the system. It’s disgraceful.

We are currently reforming the police across the country so we can free up their time and their money to focus more on street policing, neighbourhood policing, and cracking down on anti‑social behaviour. We’ve already got an extra 3,000 neighbourhood officers on the streets, and there’s more to come.

The fact that Kemi Badenoch has changed the accusations she is levelling against the PM on an almost daily basis as her claims have failed to stand up to scrutiny shows what this is really about. This is a nakedly political stunt with no substance ahead of the May elections.

Any comparison with Boris Johnson is absurd. When parliament referred that matter to the privileges committee, a police investigation had directly disproved his categoric statements that he knew nothing about the breach of lockdown rules.

I suppose our constituents might ask [if a privileges committee goes ahead], have we got the balance right between holding the government to account and seemingly squabbling amongst ourselves when there is so much else going on that perhaps parliament ought to be focusing on as well?

I have to say, a really truthful position is, why the rush at the moment? Has it got anything to do with local elections?

It may be that at some stage in the future, some of the questions haven’t been answered, and it is decided that they are of sufficient importance that the privileges committee should be involved, but I don’t really see why we’re doing it at the moment, apart from, potentially people trying to score points in advance of the local elections.