COP26 eneded last night after two weeks of intense haggling. A pact was approved in principle, but a last minute change by India and China drew most of the attention. The final wording now refers to a ‘phase down’ of coal, rather than a ‘phase out’, as many climate activists had hoped. Alok Sharma, the President of COP26, joined Trevor Phillips from Glasgow, and set about defending the deal as secured:
Sharma: ‘I’ve invested an enormous amount’ in COP26
Despite this bullishness, one of the most memorable moments from COP26 will surely be Sharma’s tearful apology after he conceded the coal compromise. On Times Radio, Tom Newton Dunn asked Sharma about what was going through his mind at the time:
Rayner: Starmer’s outside earnings ‘not the same’ as Geoffrey Cox
Andrew Marr interviewed Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner and quizzed her about Keir Starmer’s additional earnings while sitting as an MP. Labour has campaigned heavily on the issue of ‘sleaze’ in the wake of the Owen Paterson furore and has been critical of Conservative politicians such as the former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, who has earned up to £400,000 a year. After a long back and forth, Rayner told Marr that it was her party’s ambition to set up a new commission aimed at clearing up extra-parliamentary earnings:
Rayner will apologise to Boris Johnson if they meet
Marr asked Rayner if she felt that comments that she had made at the Labour party conference, where she referred to the Prime Minister and other members of the government as ‘scum’, helped to undermine faith in politics. Rayner confirmed that, if Boris Johnson agreed to a meeting with her, she would apologise to him personally for the remarks. However, she was keen to insist that the PM also apologise for using ‘homophobic, racist and misogynistic’ language:
British troops ‘should be very proud’ of what they achieved in Afghanistan
And finally, today is the 100th anniversary of the Royal British Legion and the iconic poppy of Remembrance Sunday. The outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, told Times Radio that the role of British troops in Afghanistan was very much worthy of respect and celebration, despite the manner in which events drew to a close:
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