PMQs – live: Starmer to face Sunak grilling at Prime Minister’s Questions

Robert Jenrick has suggested the government withhold student loans from the 10 per cent worst-performing degree courses in order to fund apprenticeships instead.

He said the funding would support the “biggest expansion of apprenticeships and vocational skills programmes in a generation” in order to deliver “the real skills we need”.

Addressing supporters in Westminster, the Tory leadership contender said: “We are sending people to university who would benefit far more from building practical skills. It’s time to end Blair’s failed experiment with higher education, close down failed institutions, and replace them with apprenticeship hubs for young and old alike, giving people the real chance at a better life they deserve.

“We should never again be reliant on foreign labour for the brickies, welders and electricians that build this country and power our economy forward.

“If we were to withhold student loans to the worst performing 10 per cent of courses for graduate outcomes, we would have 130,000 fewer students going to university.”

He added: “With these policies we would ensure there isn’t drama, not excuses, just delivering the real skills we need.”

More than 100 Labour MPs have registered donations from the think tank linked to Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff and backed by a hedge fund manager.

The donations from Labour Together, totalling about £1.5m and ranging from £5,000 to £137,168, have raised questions over the influence of the think tank and the power of its former director Morgan McSweeney.

The figures come just days after Mr McSweeney, Labour Together’s former director, won the power struggle with Sue Gray in Downing Street to replace her as the prime minister’s chief of staff.

Robert Jenrick has promised to lead a Conservative Party “focused on delivery”, saying there will be “no drama” and “no excuses”.

He promised that under his leadership, the Conservatives would be a party “grounded in the concerns of ordinary people”, saying it would “serve the British people once again”.

Mr Jenrick told supporters: “It’s a simple agenda: rather than a big state that fails, we need a small state that works.”“It comes back to the fundamental rewriting of the relationship between the citizen and the state that Thatcher oversaw.”

London Underground workers, including drivers, are to stage a series of strikes next month in a dispute over pay, Aslef announced.

The previous government didn’t do enough to take “full advantage” of Brexit, Robert Jenrick has said.

Giving a speech in Westminster, the Tory leadership contender said: “Brexit should be unpicked, according to Keir Starmer, and Britain brought back under the auspices of the EU’s regulatory orbit.”

While the Labour government has promised to renegotiate the UK’s Brexit deal, Sir Keir has ruled out rejoining the EU.

Speaking about the previous government, Mr Jenrick added: “We started to take advantage of Brexit, but we didn’t do enough to take full advantage of the newfound opportunities that were in our hands.“So we paid a price at the ballot box. And now we need a credible plan.”

The foreign secretary’s state visit to China has been billed as a chance to reset Britain’s diplomatic ties with the world’s second biggest economy – but, says Rahima Mahmut, it would be a disgrace if he sidestepped the question of human rights abuses

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater was asked if she was worried about the so-called slippery slope argument, but responded that she would not be concerned so long as “we get this legislation right”.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned of such a danger ahead of a new Assisted Dying Bill being formally introduced in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Ms Leadbeater told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “That’s why the next six weeks and the debates that will come in the following months are really important.

“We’ve got the benefit in this country of looking at what other countries have done. And I’m very clear, based on what I’ve seen so far and the research that I’ve done is, if we get this right from the start, which some places have done, places like Oregon and certain states in Australia, we have very strict criteria, then those jurisdictions do not broaden out the criteria.

“So we have to get it right from the start with very clear criteria, safeguards and protections.

“And I’m not looking at the model that is going on in Canada. I’m looking at those other jurisdictions where this is done well and in some cases it’s been done for a long time, very well, and the criteria have never been extended.”

A Labour MP bringing forward proposals to legalise assisted dying has said that disabled and vulnerable people will not be at risk from the legislation as it will apply only to termially ill adults.

Kim Leadbetter said the end of life bill will have “stringent” criteria and the legislation was about giving “autonomy” to people at the end of their lives. The private members bill is due to be formally introduced to the House of Commons today.

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “The health inequalities in this country, the pressure that disabled people feel and the fact that they don’t feel they’ve got the same rights as other people, let’s address those issues, and I will champion those causes all day long.

“But this is about people who are terminally ill, who just want the autonomy to have the choice to end their lives in a way that they feel more comfortable with, that respects their family and their friends and their loved ones.”

Crossbencher Baroness Grey-Thompson is one of a number of people concerned about the proposed legislation being presented in the House of Commons today.

The former paralympic champion is particularly exercised about the safeguards that would allow terminally ill adults who had six months to live to be assisted to end their life.

She told Prospect: “The reality is there’s many conditions of disability that could fit into those six months,”

“People have said to me, ‘if my life was like yours, I’d end it’. And I have a massive amount of privilege. If you think that about my life, what do you think of other disabled people as well? So, I am really worried.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had said he was “committed” to allowing a vote on legalising assisted dying should his party win the general election, and now one of his MPs is bringing forward a bill.

On Wednesday, Kim Leadbeater will formally introduce her bill to give choice at the end of life for the terminally ill.

A debate and first vote are expected to take place on November 29.

If the bill – the formal title of which will be announced on Wednesday – passes the first stage in the Commons, it will go to committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.