Sunak faces fresh revolt from Tory MPs over small boats as No 10 hints at climbdown over onshore windfarms – UK politics live

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Business leaders have warned that rail services across the north of England could “collapse into utter chaos” unless the government pushes urgently for a resolution to months of disruption, my colleague Jasper Jolly reports.

Good morning. Rishi Sunak has only been prime minister for about a month, but already he is learning that a large part of his job consists of playing Whac-a-Mole with Tory party rebellions.

All party leaders face backbench rebellions from time to time but, with its poll ratings still in landslide defeat territory and MPs rushing for the post-parliament lifeboats, the Conservative party is more ungovernable than usual.

Sunak has had to postpone votes on the levelling up and regeneration bill (originally scheduled for today) because of two rebellions on it. One group of Tory MPs (the anti-growth coalition, as Liz Truss would call them), want to amend the bill to ban mandatory housebuilding targets, while another group of Tories (from the pro-growth coalition) are backing an amendment tabled by Simon Clarke, the former levelling up secretary, that would lift the ban on onshore windfarms. Although only 25 Tories have signed the Clarke amendment (less than half the number backing the one on housebuilding targets), Clarke’s is more dangerous because it has Labour backing.

This morning Grant Shapps, the business secretary, was doing the morning interview round and he signalled that the Whac-a-Mole mallet is coming down on the Clarke rebellion. As my colleague Peter Walker reports, Shapps hinted that the government will avert the onshore windfarm rebellion by giving in.

Shapps claimed that Sunak had always been in favour of new onshore windfarms being built provided local communities were in favour, but, as Peter points out, this is not true.

And this is what the Sunak leadership campaign said in July.

In recognition of the distress and disruption that onshore windfarms can often cause, Rishi has also promised to scrap plans to relax the ban on onshore windfarms in England, providing certainty to rural communities.

(To be fair, that was the campaign Sunak lost. He did not make this, or any, promises during the subsequent October campaign that he won.)

But just as one revolt gets the hammer treatment, up pops another. This morning, as the BBC reports, more than 50 Tory MPs have signed a letter to Sunak calling for a change in the law to make it easier for asylum seekers from countries like Albania, deemed safe, to be sent home.

The letter has been coordinated by David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, and in interviews this morning he claimed that the Home Office was currently interpreting asylum laws too easily because it was allowing Albanians to claim asylum if they were at risk in their home country from criminal gangs, when asylum should only be granted in response to a threat from state persecution. “That is a misinterpretation of the asylum laws,” he told Sky News. “It was never designed for that.”

Here is the agenda for the day.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

3pm: Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Scottish affairs committee.

After 3.30pm: MPs debate the second reading of the finance bill.

I 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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