Rishi Sunak holds press conference after meeting with Joe Biden – UK politics live | Politics

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Here is the broadcaster Piers Morgan’s take on the Rishi Sunak press conference.

Watching @RishiSunak press conference live from Bali. Whatever you think of him, it’s reassuring after the last few shambolic years to now have a Prime Minister who at least looks & sounds serious & statesmanlike, and seems to know what he’s talking about. pic.twitter.com/afK6O1D7u0

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 16, 2022

Q: How is the UK going to work with other countries to implement the proposals in the G20 communique?

Sunak says the communique is “substantive”, “comprehensive” and “action orientated”.

A lot of positive things have come out of the summit that will be carried forward by the Indian presidency, he says.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Sunak refuses to accept Brexit has made the UK’s economic situation worse

Q: Do you accept Brexit has made the economic situation worse? And do you agree with George Eustice that the trade deal with Australia is a dud?

Sunak says global factors are mainly behind the economic situation. He does not address the point about Brexit.

On trade, he says every trade deal has good and bad points. In the future he does not want to sacrifice quality for speed, he says.

(Eustice says the Australia deal was bad because Liz Truss rushed it.)

Sunak says government is working ‘incredibly hard’ to ensure autumn statement delivers fairness and compassion

Q: The autumn statement is going to be tough for people. Why do they need to accept what is happening?

Sunak says inflation is people’s number one concern. It eats into people’s living standards. He wants to get it down, and limit the increase in mortgage rates.

That will require difficult decisions, he says.

He says over the summer people got a glimpse of what can happen when you don’t get these things right.

But the decisions will be based on fairness and compassion. He says he thinks people will see that the government has “strived incredibly hard to deliver fairness, to deliver compassion.”

Q: In one interview yesterday you said inflation was your number one priority. In another you said it was illegal immigration. Which is it?

Sunak says tackling inflation is his number one priority.

Once the UK has a stable economic foundation he is confident it can move ahead.

We need to get a grip on inflation first, he says.

He says the G20 communique released today made the same point.

Illegal immigration is the next priority after that, he says. He says, after the autumn statement, it is the issue he has been spending the most time on.

He says the deal with France shows the first fruits of that effort.

Updated at 08.57 GMT

Q: [From ITV’s Anushka Asthana] When you were woken up at 5 am, did that bring home to you How could this war spread?

Yes, says Sunak. That is why he spoke to the Polish president. And he spoke to President Zelenskiy of Ukraine too.

He says the G20 leaders were trying to find solutions to these problems as Russia was deploying more than 80 missiles against Ukraine. That shows “utter contempt” for the international system.

Sunak is now taking questions.

The BBC’s Chris Mason asks what he would say to people worried the war in Ukraine could provoke a global conflict.

Sunak says they are still establishing the facts as to what happened yesterday. That is happening as we speak, he says.

Sunak says economic stability and confidence are at the heart of the government’s agenda.

The autumn statement tomorrow will show how the government is putting the country on a positive trajectory, he says.

Sunak says Russia’s war in Ukraine is a threat not just to global security, but to global economy

Rishi Sunak is speaking at the start of his press conference.

He says Vladimir Putin launched indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Ukraine yesterday.

The UK is steadily behind Ukraine, he says.

As long as the war goes on, it poses a threat to the security of the UK and the world.

And it is devastating for the global economy, he says.

Two thirds of G20 members are currently experiencing inflation rates over 7%, and the IMF predicts a third of the world’s economy will be in recession this year, or next.

At a time when countries are tentatively emerging from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, households across the world have been hit by punishing price rises and are facing an uncertain future.

Good morning. Rishi Sunak is still at the G20 summit in Bali, but as a result of the missile summit that landed in Poland, the G20 also turned into a G7/NATO. My colleague Patrick Wintour has the latest here.

Sunak has had a bilateral meeting with Joe Biden, the US president. But his planned bilateral with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping – which would have been Xi’s first face to face meeting with a UK PM for almost five years – was cancelled.

Sunak is due to hold a press conference at 8.30am. Speaking earlier, asked about reports that the Polish deaths may have been caused by a missile fired by the Ukrainians as part of their air defences, Sunak said:

I think the most important thing to recognize is the reason Ukraine has to use missiles to defend its homeland. It is having to defend its homeland against an illegal and barbaric group of strikes by Russia.

Here is the agenda for the day.

8.30am: Rishi Sunak holds a press conference in Bali.

9am: Steve Barclay, the health secretay, speaking at the NHS Providers conference in Liverpool

12pm: Dominic Raab, the deputy PM, faces Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, at PMQs.

After 12.30pm: MPs debate the remaining stages of the national security 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 [email protected]

Rishi Sunak sitting with Joe Biden (left) at the emergency meeting of G7 leaders in Bali. Photograph: Leon Neal/PA

Updated at 08.27 GMT

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