Rishi Sunak quashes talk of Swiss-style Brexit – UK politics live | Politics

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said that that she has an “unshakeable commitment” to maintain the NHS as a service that will be free at the point of use. She was responding to the report saying Scottish NHS executives discussed the case for charging wealthier patients, as a means of addressing the NHS funding crisis. (See 10.23am.) This is from LBC’s Jack Foster.

Rishi Sunak’s speech to the CBI conference this morning won’t be remembered as enormously incisive or transformative. But the last time a PM addressed the CBI a year ago, it was Boris Johnson rambling on about Peppa Pig, and so it was not hard for Sunak to make a better impression, which he did. Here are the main points from his speech and Q&A.

• Sunak used his Q&A to authoritatively quash suggestions the government might seek a Swiss-style deal with the EU in the long term. (See 11.41am.) If, as is widely assumed (see 9.48am), Jeremy Hunt was behind the Sunday Times story, then Sunak’s comments can be seen as rebuke to his chancellor.

Part of the reason we ended free movement of labour was to rebuild public consent in our immigration system.

If we’re going to have a system that allows businesses to access the best and brightest from around the world …

….we need to do more to give the British people trust and confidence that the system works and is fair.

That means tackling illegal migration.

And in his Q&A, when asked specifically about the CBI’s call for firms to be allowed to hire more workers from abroad (see 9.04am), Sunak kept returning to his point about tackling illegal immigration. As Harry Cole from the Sun and Chris Smyth from the Times point out, he seemed to be deliberately linking the two issues.

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In one concession to business, though, Sunak did not restate the government’s commitment to reducing the overall level of immigration.

When it comes to the NHS, we all share the same ambition …

… to give everybody in the country the best possible care, free at the point of use.

But to deliver it, we need to be bold and radical in challenging conventional wisdom.

In terms of examples as to what he meant by this, Sunak said that he wanted to give patients more choice, informed by “radical transparency” about the performance of doctors (an idea that governments have been pursuing at least since the Tony Blair era) and that he wanted the government to think creatively about the roles needed in healthcare (see 10.56am).

• Sunak suggested that he would like an overhaul of the school curriculum. Saying that there was no responsibility he felt more deeply as PM than being in charge of developing a world-class education system, he said:

We are asking ourselves radical searching, questions.

About the curriculum – because young people need to enter the modern economy equipped with the right knowledge and skills.

And about technology – because we want to help children engage and learn better and save teachers’ time.

If we can get that right with more robotics and automation, then we can drive up productivity. It reduces some of the pressure on labour, creates good jobs for people.

It’s something that we lag behind in – I think there was a study from the Robotics Federation, or whoever it was, a couple of years ago which showed that we under-index for the amount of automation and robotics, even when you control for the sectoral mix of our economy.

So that, to me, is actually low-hanging fruit when we talk about how do we drive up growth, we’ve got an opportunity there to do it, and to do it relatively quickly, I hope.

Faisal Islam, the BBC’s economics editor, says Sunak is right.

Rishi Sunak has now finished taking questions, and in response to the second question, from ITV’s Harry Horton, he delivered his firmest response to the Sunday Times story suggestion the government wants a Swiss-type deal with the EU in the long term. (See 8.51am and 9.48am.) Sunak said:

On trade, let me be unequivocal about this. Under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws.

Now I voted for Brexit. I believe in Brexit and I know that Brexit can deliver, and is already delivering, enormous benefits and opportunities for the country – migration being an immediate one, where we have proper control of our borders and are able to have a conversation with our country about the type of migration that we want and need.

When it comes to trade, it means that we can open up our country to the world’s fastest growing markets. I’ve just got back from the G20 in Indonesia. We’re talking about signing CPTPP, where we’ve got some of the most exciting, fastest-growing economies in the world, and we can become a part of that trading bloc. That’s a fantastic opportunity for the UK.

Or indeed regulation … We need regulatory regimes that are fit for the future that ensure that this country can be leaders in those industries that are going to create the jobs and the growth of the future. And having the regulatory freedom to do that is an important opportunity of Brexit.

And that’s my agenda. And I’m confident that that agenda is not only right for the country, but can deliver enormous benefit for people up and down the UK in the years to come.

This is significant. Ruling out any relationship with the EU “that relies on alignment with EU laws” would rule out any Swiss-style deal with Brussels. Switzerland is not in the European Economic Area (for EU countries and others fully signed up to the single market, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), but it does participate in the single market as a member of the European Free Trade Association (Efta) and it has multiple agreements with the EU that require it to align with EU laws.

I will post more from the speech and Q&A shortly.

Q: How are you going to change relations with the EU on legal immigration and trade?

Sunak says he has already covered immigration.

On trade, he says he will not reach any new agreement with the EU that would involve the UK having to align with EU rules.

Under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws.

He says he voted for Brexit. He claims it is “already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the country”. He cites control of immigration as one example.

Sunak is now talking about innovation in the public services.

He says he grew up in an NHS family. It is in his blood, he says.

But he says the government’s ambition for the NHS “cannot be measured solely by the money we spend, but by the quality of care every patient receives”.

Better care requires innovation, he says. He says that does not just cover the type of treatment available, but how treatment is delivered too. He goes on:

To do that, “we’re opening community diagnostic centres to deliver millions more tests”, he says.

But we need to go further still. We want to give patients genuine choice about where and when to access care. And those choices need to be informed by radical transparency about the performance of our healthcare system.

We’re also making sure the NHS has the workforce it needs for the future. with the right number of doctors and nurses in the right places as well, as well as thinking creatively about what new roles and capabilities we need in the healthcare workforce of the future.