Liz Truss has been appointed foreign secretary replacing Dominic Raab who was demoted to justice secretary in the prime minister’s cabinet shuffle. Mr Raab also holds the roles of Lord Chancellor and deputy prime minister.
Michael Gove has been appointed secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, replacing Robert Jenrick who was ousted earlier this afternoon. He will also retain responsibility for relations with the UK’s devolved administrations.
Gavin Williamson was removed from his role as education secretary, and Robert Buckland was also removed from his posting as justice secretary.
The government hopes to complete cabinet-level appointments today, with more junior posts to be announced in the coming days.
A Downing Street source said: “The prime minister will today conduct a reshuffle to put in place a strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has refused to explain how universal credit claimants would be able to recoup their looming £20-a-week cut in payments.
The prime minister was challenged to set out how many hours of extra work will be needed – after a Cabinet minister wrongly claimed it is just two.
But Mr Johnson declined to say whether the true figure is higher or lower.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of UK political news.
Government again delays key border checks on EU imports
The government has announced that it will delay a host of border red tape for EU imports from October and January next year until July 2022.
These include physical checks on food and other animal-related products which were due in January next year. It comes after The Independent reported that the necessary infrastructure would not be ready in time.
As late as Thursday last week, the government was suggesting that businesses should still prepare for the already delayed deadlines for new paperwork from October and physical checks in January.
Here is the story:
Labour urges Tory MPs to oppose Universal Credit cut
Labour is to call on Tory MPs to back a vote calling for the government to scrap its plans to cut Universal Credit during an opposition day debate on Wednesday.
Ministers have come under sustained pressure to reverse its decision to end the £20 uplift introduced to support families during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Lords criticised for inviting ‘fringe’ climate denial group to give evidence in parliament
A House of Lords committee has been criticised for inviting a “fringe” group which campaigns against climate action to give evidence on carbon policy.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation was invited by peers to give evidence to an inquiry on reaching net zero and appeared before them on Tuesday.
But environmental groups questioned why the committee would “waste their valuable time” hearing from the organisation, which they said had been “so widely and repeatedly found to be wrong”.
Read more here:
Inflation soars to highest since 2012
UK inflation has surged to its highest for nearly a decade after a record jump in August as restaurant and cafe prices raced higher following last summer’s discounts under the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation jumped from 2 per cent in July to 3.2 per cent in August, which is the highest since March 2012 and far above the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target.
The ONS said the increase – the largest since records began in 1997 – was due to the discounts seen across the hospitality sector last August under Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme to boost consumer spending and confidence after lockdown.
It added there was also likely to have been some impact from the supply chain crisis on inflation last month, which it said helped push up food and non-alcoholic drinks prices.
Tax rises and the overmighty state pave the way for Tory split
Like the Brexit deal, the decision to raise taxes was rushed through at the last minute.
But the repercussions of one of the biggest tax rises in history will take much longer to play out.
John Rentoul reports:
Former Isis-bride Shamima Begum offers to ‘help’ Boris Johnson
Former Isis-bride Shamima Begum has begged the British public for forgiveness, saying there is “no evidence” she was a key player in preparing terrorist acts.
The 22-year-old, who fled her east London home for Syria as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, said she wanted to be brought back to the UK and face terror charges in order to prove her innocence.
Asked for a message to Boris Johnson, Begum said that she could help the Prime Minister in “your fight against terrorism because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing”.
She told Good Morning Britain: “I want to say that you are clearly struggling with extremism and terrorism in your country. And I want to help with that with giving my own experience from with these extremists and what they say and how they persuade people to do what they do and to come to places like Syria.
“I think I could very much help you in your fight against terrorism, because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing.”
Javid defends decision to strip Begum of British citizenship
Sajid Javid has hit back at Shamima Begum’s claims that she played no part in Islamic State terrorism.
Referring to his decision while home secretary to strip Begum of her British citizenship, the health secretary said: “I won’t go into details of the case, but what I will say is that you certainly haven’t seen what I saw.”
He added: “If you did know what I knew, because you are sensible, responsible people, you would have made exactly the same decision – of that I have no doubt.”
Government hires JP Morgan to advise on potential sale of Channel 4
The government has hired US banking behemoth JP Morgan to advise on the future of Channel 4, as ministers consider putting the publicly-owned broadcaster up for sale.
A 10-week public consultation into the potential privatisation of Channel 4, ordered by culture secretary Oliver Dowden in June, came to a close on Tuesday night.
The Wall Street giant has been drafted in to provide corporate financial advice and analysis to ministers as they consider the responses, The Independent understands.
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Climate protesters block parts of M25
Climate protesters have blocked parts of the M25 for the second time in three days.
Insulate Britain, which is demanding government action on home insulation, has stopped traffic at several sections of Britain’s busiest motorway.
It wrote on Twitter: “#InsulateBritain are back. @BorisJohnson can you hear us yet?’’
