Markus Andrews

Amid the political chaos of ministerial resignations on Tuesday evening, one Conservative MP had a very blunt response to the announcement of a new education secretary. In a very public example of apparent Tory division, backbencher Lucy Allan MP replied to the official UK prime minister Twitter account’s announcement of Michelle Donelan’s new role, simply writing: “Seriously”. Ms Allan appeared unhappy that Nadhim Zahawi had been moved to the Treasury to become the new chancellor, as Boris Johnson scrambled to replace Rishi Sunak. More

A defiant British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was battling to stay in power on Wednesday after his government was rocked by the resignation of two top ministers, who said they could no longer serve under his scandal-tarred leadership.His first challenge is getting through Wednesday, where he faces tough questions at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in Parliament, and a long-scheduled grilling by a committee of senior lawmakers.Months of discontent over Johnson’s judgment and ethics within the governing Conservative Party erupted with the resignations of Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid within minutes of each other on Tuesday evening. In a scathing resignation letter, Sunak said “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. … I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”Javid said the party needed “humility, grip and a new direction” but “it is clear this situation will not change under your leadership.”Johnson quickly replaced the two ministers, promoting Nadhim Zahawi from the education department to the Treasury and installing his chief of staff, Steve Barclay, as health secretary.But a string of resignations late Tuesday from more junior ministers — from both the liberal and right-wing branches of the Conservative Party — showed that danger to Johnson was far from over. In the past few months, Johnson has been fined by police and slammed by an investigator’s report over lockdown-breaching parties in government during the pandemic; survived a no-confidence vote by his party in which 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to oust him; and has seen formerly loyal lieutenants urge him to resign.Through it all, he has vowed to carry on governing — even suggesting he wanted to stay in office until the 2030s.The final straw for Sunak and Javid was the prime minister’s shifting explanations about his handling of a sexual misconduct scandal.The latest scandal began last week when lawmaker Chris Pincher resigned as Conservative deputy chief whip amid complaints that he groped two men at a private club. That triggered a series of reports about past allegations leveled against Pincher and questions about why Johnson promoted him to a senior job enforcing party discipline. Johnson’s office initially said he wasn’t aware of the previous accusations when he promoted Pincher in February. By Monday, a spokesman said Johnson knew of allegations that were “either resolved or did not progress to a formal complaint.”When a former top civil servant in the Foreign Office said Johnson had been briefed about an allegation against Pincher in 2019, Johnson’s office changed its story again, saying the prime minister had forgotten that Pincher was the subject of an official complaint.It was all too much for ministers who have been sent onto radio and TV to defend the government’s position, only to find the position changing by the hour.Bim Afolami, who quit as Conservative Party vice-chairman on Tuesday, said he had been willing to give Johnson the benefit of the doubt, “but I think that in the last few weeks we’ve seen that things haven’t improved. They’ve got a lot worse.”“I think the behavior of Downing Street over the Chris Pincher affair was really appalling. And I, personally, just couldn’t think I could defend that sort of behavior any longer,” he told the BBC.Johnson’s opponents in the party hope more Cabinet ministers will follow Sunak and Javid, though for now other top officials — including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel — are staying put.Opponents are also trying to force another no-confidence vote over the prime minister. The existing rules require 12 months between such votes, but the rules are made by a powerful party committee — and elections for its executive are due in the next few weeks.___Follow all of AP’s coverage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson More

Nadhim Zahawi has denied he threatened to resign from Boris Johnson’s cabinet amid a tussle for the role as chancellor and also hinted a planned rise in corporation tax may be axed.The remarks from the newly appointed chancellor come as the prime minister clings to power after the twin resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, alongside a slew of junior aides.In his first comments since being appointed chancellor, Mr Zahawi rejected reports he threatened to quit the cabinet unless promoted to chancellor, saying: “No I didn’t threaten to resign at all”.Put to him that Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, was reportedly in line for the role as chancellor, and Mr Zahawi had said he would step down if he did not get the job, he told Sky News: “That is not true”.“This is a team game, you play for the team, you deliver for the nation. My focus has to be about delivery,” he added.“Sometimes walking away may give you some respite — dare I say it — but the idea you have to deliver for the country, the country that has given me everything, is the right thing to do.”Facing a bleak economic outlook, Mr Zahawi he wanted to get record-level inflation under control, insisting the government would be “really careful” about public sector pay and inflation isn’t “fuelled”.Last year, his predecessor Mr Sunak announced corporation tax would rise to 25 per cent from April 2023 — from a current rate of 19 per cent. More

Labour leader Keir Starmer is calling for snap election after Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak dramatically quit, leaving Boris Johnson ‘on the brink’. The resignations of two of the most high-profile cabinet members was followed by Tory vice-chair Bim Afolami and a string parliamentary private secretaries on Tuesday evening.Sir Keir said the government was collapsing and the prime minister was unfit to govern – as talk of a snap election mounted.He said if ministers who had backed him had a shred of integrity “they would have gone months ago”. “The Tory party is corrupted, and changing one man at the top won’t fix it: we need a real change of government and a fresh start for Britain,” he said.Just four days ago, the prime minister dismissed the idea of calling a snap election, after 41 per cent of his party voted against him in a no-confidence vote last month.The UK’s next general election is scheduled for Thursday 2 May 2024 – but a snap election could mean voters being asked to go to the polls sooner.A snap vote is often held when the government needs to resolve a specific issue and is confident it will increase its majority without weeks of the usual campaigning.Until 2011, prime ministers were able to call an election whenever they felt the time was right within five years of the last one. More

It’s not just Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid who have stepped down. After the two big-hitters announced their resignations, a whole raft of Conservative MPs said they would be leaving their political offices in government.Although not as high profile, the resignation of such individuals points to the mounting sense of crisis consuming Boris Johnson’s administration, which appears poised to implode on itself after being buffeted by one scandal after another.Here’s what the government’s lesser-known quitters had to say:Jonathan Gullis resigned his role as parliamentary private secretary to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, saying the Conservative Party has been “more focused on dealing with our reputational damage rather than delivering for the people of this country”.In a letter to the prime minister, Mr Gullis said he was resigning “with a heavy heart”.He wrote: “I have been a member of the Conservative Party my entire adult life, a party I believe represents opportunity for all. I feel for too long we have been more focused on dealing with our reputational damage rather than delivering for the people of this country and spreading opportunity for all, which is why I came into politics.“It is for this reason I can no longer to serve as part of your government.”The Conservative Party’s vice chairman Bim Afolami pulled off the most spectacular resignation of the evening, doing so live on air while saying Johnson no longer has the support of the country.Mr Afolami told Talk TV Mr Johnson should also resign from No 10 and said he “can’t serve under the prime minister” after months of turmoil.He said that after recent allegations regarding the former deputy chief whip, Christopher Pincher, and other damaging scandals, Mr Johnson did not have his support.“I just don’t think the prime minister any longer has, not just my support, but he doesn’t have, I don’t think, the support of the party, or indeed the country any more,” he said. “I think for that reason he should step down.”Saqib Bhatti handed in his resignation as a parliamentary private secretary to the PM himself. He wrote that his conscience would not allow him to continue in his government role.“The Conservative and Unionist Party has always been the party of integrity and honour. I feel that standards in public life are of the utmost importance, and the events of the past few months have undermined public trust in all of us,” the Meriden MP wrote“I have been grappling with these issues for some time and my conscience will not allow me to continue to support this administration. It is for this reason I must tender my resignation.”In a resignation that no-one saw coming, Dr Andrew Murrison announced he would be stepping down as trade envoy to Morocco, in a heavy blow for the north African nation. Dr Murrison, who backed Mr Johnon’s leadership bid in 2016 and in 2019, wrote in his letter: “The last straw in the rolling chaos of the past six months has been the unavoidable implication of Lord McDonald’s letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards this morning. “Others must square, as best they can, their continuing enjoyment of your patronage with their personal sense of decency, honour and integrity but I no longer can”.And Nicola Richards, a parliamentary private secretary to the Department for Transport, said that the Conservative Party was “currently unrecognisable” in her resignation letter to the PM, adding that “I believe something must change”.“At a time where my constituents are worried about the cost of living and I am doing my best to support them,” the West Bromwich East MP wrote, “I cannot bring myself to serve as a PPS under the current circumstances, where the focus is skewed by poor judgement that I don’t wish to be associated with.”Will such resignations be enough to force the PM out of office? I wouldn’t bet on it.In one of the most high-profile resignations from outside the cabinet, Alex Chalk, the solicitor general, said that he could not “defend the indefensible”.Stafford MP Theo Clarke resigned from her position as trade envoy to Kenya with a statement which said she takes “allegations of sexual misconduct very seriously” and that the Prime Minister had shown a “severe lack of judgment and care” for his parliamentary party. More

The government should not pretend a new Brexit trade deal with Australia will have “noticeable” benefits for consumers, a cross-party parliamentary committee has warned. In a landmark report the international trade committee said ministers should be wary of overselling the “modest” gains from the free trade agreement.MPs said the removal of tariffs from food products would likely only cut prices by a few pence and “will not make any noticeable difference at supermarket tills”.The government’s own impact assessment predicts a very small economic gain from the agreement of just 0.08 per cent of GDP over a 20 year period.The international trade committee also warns that the liberalisation of the market for Australian goods will open the door to food produced in “ways that would be illegal in the UK” – especially using pesticides banned for British farmers.This approach will open the door to the possibility of “unfair competition” with UK farmers, they said.”We are concerned about the potential undermining of voluntary food production standards in the UK as result of agri-food liberalisation under the Agreement. The Government must say what it will do to monitor, and potentially act on, this,” the MPs said.MPs said that while “we welcome the liberalisation of trade in processed food achieved by the Agreement”, they believed that “the gains are likely to be modest”. “Australia’s existing applied tariffs are low; and, while the UK’s applied tariffs for a few processed food products are significant, their removal from Australian imports will not make any noticeable difference at supermarket tills.”The committee is expected to question international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan at a session on Wednesday. It has previously criticised her for ducking previous evidence sessions and not giving it enough time to scrutinise the agreement.Ms Trevelyan had previously claimed the deal was “a landmark moment in the historic and vital relationship between our two Commonwealth nations”, which demonstrated what the UK could achieve as “an agile, independent sovereign trading nation”.Angus Brendan MacNeil, the Scottish National Party MP who acts as the committee’s chair, said: “The Government must level with the public – this trade deal will not have the transformative effects Ministers would like to claim. “The Government’s own impact assessment shows an increase in GDP of just 0.08 per cent as a result of the deal, and the balance of gains and losses varies between economic sectors and nations of the UK.”He added: “We have also found multiple examples where the Government’s flat-footed negotiating has led to significant concessions being given to the Australians without securing all possible benefits in return.“For example, the Government has increased access for food produced to lower standards than would be legal in the UK, yet did not secure geographical protections for iconic British goods, such as Melton Mowbray pork pies or Scotch whisky. This means there is nothing preventing UK goods from being impersonated ‘down under’.“As the first wholly new trade deal since Brexit, this agreement sets a precedent for the future. It is vital that the Government learns from this experience and negotiates harder next time around to maximise gains and minimise losses for all economic sectors and parts of the UK.”The government is keen to sign Brexit trade deals around the world to help it make up the damage it has done to UK exports and imports by leaving the European Union’s customs union and single market.However, it is expected to be virtually impossible to close the gap because of the scale of numbers involved. One assessment published by the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex found that the losses from leaving the EU’s trade regime were likely to be 178 times bigger than the expected benefits of new FTAs.A DIT spokesperson appeared to disregard the committee’s advice about overselling the deal, and said: “Our landmark trade agreement with Australia will unlock £10.4 billion of additional bilateral trade, support economic growth in every part of the UK and deliver for the 15,300 businesses already exporting goods to Australia.“We have always said that we will not compromise the UK’s high environmental, animal welfare or food safety standards, and the independent Trade & Agriculture Commission recently concluded that the deal does not undermine the UK’s robust domestic protections.” More

Labour leader Keir Starmer is backing the idea of a snap election after Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak dramatically quit, leaving Boris Johnson in what critics said was an “untenable” position.The resignations of two of the most high-profile cabinet members was followed by that of Tory vice-chair Bim Afolami and a string parliamentary private secretaries.Sir Keir said the government was collapsing and the prime minister was unfit to govern – as talk of a snap election mounted.He said if ministers who had backed him had a shred of integrity “they would have gone months ago”. “The Tory party is corrupted, and changing one man at the top won’t fix it: we need a real change of government and a fresh start for Britain,” he said.Just four days ago, the prime minister dismissed the idea of calling a snap election, after 41 per cent of his party voted against him in a no-confidence vote last month.The UK’s next general election is scheduled for Thursday 2 May 2024 – but a snap election could mean voters being asked to go to the polls sooner.A snap vote is often held when the government needs to resolve a specific issue and is confident it will increase its majority without weeks of the usual campaigning.Until 2011, prime ministers were able to call an election whenever they felt the time was right within five years of the last one.Then under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, a general election had to be held every five years on the first Thursday of May.Theresa May gambled on a snap poll in 2017 – which backfired when she lost her majority and voting led to a hung parliament, with the Tories reliant on a confidence-and-supply deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party – as did Mr Johnson in 2019.But earlier this year, the government repealed the Act, so at any time the prime minister may ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament at any time to hold an election.Mr Johnson has claimed he has a new mandate following his victory in the confidence vote last month.But many observers say the Chris Pincher scandal – and claims that the prime minister had known about allegations against the ex-deputy chief whip when he promoted him – were the final straw in a long list of reasons why many in his own party had called for him to go, including Covid lockdown-breaking parties. More

A “tsunami” of online child abuse is taking place in the UK, the NSPCC has said as it published data showing a more than 80% rise in online grooming crimes being recorded by police over the last four years.The children’s charity has asked the Government to use the Online Safety Bill to help combat the issue.According to figures gathered by the NSPCC through Freedom of Information requests, 6,156 sexual communication with a child offences have been recorded over the last year, with the data from 41 police forces showing an increase of 84% since 2017/18 – with more than 27,000 offences recorded since 2017.The data showed that 82% of cases last year – when the gender was known – were against girls, while Meta-owned platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were used in 38% of all cases where the platform was known.Snapchat was used in 33% of cases where a platform was recorded.The figures have been published on the day the Government announced plans to table an amendment to the Online Safety Bill, which would give Ofcom more power as the regulator to demand platforms do more to combat the spread of abuse material – including developing new technologies to find and tackle it.The NSPCC has voiced its support for those measures, but said it believes more can still be done to better protect children online.The charity said that the record levels of online child sexual abuse seen during the pandemic have not subsided and could mean a long-term increase in risk to children.It is calling for the Online Safety Bill to be further strengthened to compel tech firms to work together across platforms to combat “grooming pathways”, as well as do more to stop offenders from organising on social networks to organise and direct each other to abuse elsewhere – a process known as “breadcrumbing”.The NSPCC has also urged the Government to commit to creating a code of practice for platforms around tackling violence against women and girls and establishing a children’s watchdog to represent children’s needs online.“Online grooming is taking place at unprecedented levels and only concerted action will turn the tide on this tsunami of preventable abuse,” NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said.“The crucial Online Safety Bill is the opportunity to deliver the legislative change we urgently need to address head-on these preventable crimes against children.“We strongly welcome the Government’s ambition to deliver world-leading legislation. But as it seems increasingly clear that the pandemic has resulted in a long-term increase in the abuse threat, the current proposals must go further now to tackle online sexual violence and prevent avoidable abuse.” More