Boris Johnson news: Latest updates as PM rejects inflation concern as Javid says healthcare should begin at home

UK diplomats have been “too nice” in the past in their negotiations in Brussels, according to Lord Frost.

The Brexit minister said he had to train his staff to be firmer when dealing with Brussels.

At a Centre for Policy Studies fringe event at the Conservative Party conference, he said: “I think the problem is that too many of our negotiators – they are sort of too nice.

“It is not that they are trying to do different things. Too often we just want to be liked and we don’t push points and I think that is possibly a British reflex. Nobody has ever said that about me in this job.

“We had to drill our negotiating team a lot in 2020 when everybody first got together precisely so people exhibited the right kind of behaviours, they pushed back, people presented points hard, they didn’t immediately respond to points made.

“We made a conscious effort to make that happen because it was a bit countercultural.”

Carrie Johnson has said her husband is “completely committed to accepting” the gains of the LGBT+ community.

PM Mr Johnson has been in hot water for referring to gay men in a derogatory way in a 1998 column for The Telegraph.

Carrie was speaking at a pride event on the fringes of the Tory conference in Manchester, and was introduced to the stage as a “longstanding ally” of the LGBT+ community.

She said: “Whether you are LGBT+ or an ally like me we are all committed to equality and acceptance for everyone, whoever you are and whoever you love.

“There are still those who tell me that being LGBT+ and a Tory is somehow incompatible, well, looking around me tonight, we can see that is blatantly untrue.

“Many of you here tonight have helped play a part in the journey our party has taken on gay rights and we can now say with huge pride that it was a Conservative prime minister who delivered equal marriage in England and Wales.

“I want you all to know that we now have a Prime Minister who is completely committed to accepting those gains and extending them further.”

Jeremy Clarkson’s programme about his Oxfordshire farm has done “a huge amount” to highlight the challenges faced by agriculture, the Environment Secretary has said.

Mr Clarkson’s programme, named Clarkson’s Farm, sees him grow his own crops and look after livestock on the land he owns in the Cotswolds.

Speaking at a Conservative Party conference event, environment minister George Eustice said: “I think that Jeremy Clarkson’s programme has done a huge amount to raise the profile of agriculture and some of the challenges it faces.

“It is sort of a Top Gear-meets-Countryfile type of programme I think.”

Mr Eustice went on to speak about the changes to farming subsidies the Government has planned after Brexit.

He said: “We do recognise that at the moment there is some financial dependence on those old-style area subsidies.

“The reason we are getting rid of those area subsidies is land is a fixed supply, there is no lack of demand for it.

“It really doesn’t make sense to be subsidising land occupation on land tenure. So it is right that we move away from that but the heart of your question is we need to make this change gradual, so we are going to make incremental changes over seven years.”

Government borrowing to fund investment is a “sensible” thing to do under new fiscal rules set to be announced by the Treasury later this month, Rishi Sunak has said.

Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative party conference on Tuesday, the Chancellor said: “Borrowing for capital investment that is going to drive up our growth is probably a sensible thing for us to be doing, particularly in an environment of slightly lower interest rates.

“Borrowing for more day-to-day spending is probably less something that you would want to have as part of your framework.”

Asked whether he was happy for the size of the state to hit 40 per cent of GDP, Mr Sunak said he wished it was nearer to 20 per cent but added that the 2019 Conservative manifesto was an “expansive agenda”.

Additional reporting by the Reuters news agency.

A second Scottish independence referendum should only be granted once 25 years have passed or if 60 per cent of the nation supports independence for over a year, a senior Scottish Tory has said.

Alister Jack, the Secretary of State for Scotland, said that IndyRef2 would only be granted under three conditions.

He told STV that a “generation” – which he defined as 25 years – would need to have passed or over the 60 per cent of the Scottish public would need to support independence or another referendum for at least 12 months to be considered.

Mr Jack continued: “Nicola Sturgeon does not have a mandate for a referendum because she did not get the majority that she craved in the Holyrood elections in May.”

Elsewhere during the interview, he said he did not know a single person on Universal Credit – despite ministers axing a £20 uplift later this month.

At least 600 healthy pigs have already been culled due to a nationwide labour shortage in abattoirs, the chief executive of the National Pig Association (NPA) has said.

Zoe Davies told the PA news agency that while there has not been a mass cull of pigs yet, such a measure is “the next stage in the process” and farms are “on the edge”.

Ms Davies said that the cull was “hugely difficult” for the pig farmers, and some have even resorted to hiring outside help instead of asking their staff to do it.

“Some are having to use knackermen as they just can’t bear having to do it or ask their staff to do it”, she added.

Earlier, Boris Johnson likened the culling of pigs to turning them into bacon.

“I was on the BBC the other day with a guy who was complaining that the pigs were going to be slaughtered, that 100,000 pigs were going to die”, he told Times Radio’s Tom Newton Dunn. “And I pondered the unhappy duty of pointing out to him that that is what happens to pigs in this country”.

Responding to the prime minister’s comments, Ms Davies said: “These animals were going to feed the nation. It should not be allowed to happen.”

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

Caroline Lucas has criticised home secretary Priti Patel for her conference speech earlier today.

She also criticised the government’s lack of progress in providing practical assistance to people evacuated from Afghanistan over recent months after the Taliban returned to power.

She said: “Priti Patel whips up divisions over people seeking asylum, eg referring to those who ‘seek to take our country for a ride’.

“Yet she’s refusing practical help to Afghan refugees & shamefully still hasn’t opened inadequate resettlement scheme promised over 6 weeks ago”.

Sajid Javid said health and social care “begins at home” and people should go to family for support before the state.

At the Tory conference, the health secretary said: “The State was needed in this pandemic more than any time in peacetime. But government shouldn’t own all risks and responsibilities in life.

“We as citizens have to take some responsibility for our health too.

“We shouldn’t always go first to the State. What kind of society would that be?

“Health – and social care – begins at home. Family first, then community, then the State.

“If you do need support, we live in a compassionate, developed country that can afford to help with that. There are few higher callings than to care for another person.”

Health secretary Sajid Javid has begun his speech in Manchester with an opening joke about how his mother always wanted him to be a GP, but has settled for health secretary instead.

He then summed up his job, and vision, in three words: “Covid, recovery, reform”.