Markus Andrews

The environment and the climate crisis were sacrificed in the government’s rush to strike a post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, a Lords committee is warning. Ministers are criticised for failing to fight for “ambitious” commitments to cut carbon emissions – even as Canberra was handed “generous” access to sell agricultural goods in the UK.The report raises fears that “deforested land” in Australia will be used to produce the beef and cereal that will be sent to the UK “in greater quantities”.Goods produced “using pesticides banned in the UK” will be imported under the deal – the first with a new partner since the UK left the EU – the Lords international agreements Committee finds.It also fails to include any references to “reducing or reviewing Australia’s reliance on coal”, despite a later agreement with New Zealand doing exactly that.The committee also questions a government claim of no “significant” increase in the UK’s CO2 emissions – arguing that excludes the transport of goods and the lower Australian production standards.The report comes after the Commons environment committee raised the alarm over farmers and food producers being set to lose almost £300m from scrapping tariffs.The Lords committee suggests “the speed of the negotiations” was given priority over “using the UK’s leverage to negotiate better outcomes” on the environment.And it states: “Considering that the UK granted Australia generous agricultural market access, it is regrettable that the government did not press Australia for more ambitious commitments on climate change.” Baroness Hayter, the committee’s chair, said: “There is a risk that this agreement could set a precedent for the negotiations with countries, particularly with other large agricultural producers, such as the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.“We are urging the government to set out a clear policy against which future negotiations can be measured.”It was revealed last year that the government secretly dropped a number of climate pledges under pressure from Australia – causing embarrassment in the run-up to the Cop26 summit. A binding section referencing the “Paris Agreement temperature goals” was scrubbed in order to get the agreement “over the line”, a leaked email revealed.Today’s report notes that the government anticipates a 0.08 per cent boost to GDP by 2035, from the Australia deal.It describes this as “a fairly limited – though welcome – impact” and calls claims of wider benefits for small businesses and professionals “speculative”, saying they “should not be overstated”.Concern is also raised over a failure to share information with the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.Consultation should be “comprehensive and timely”, the committee says, calling for the other UK nations to be “involved throughout the negotiations” in future.But the Department for International Trade (DIT) argued the agreement “includes an environment chapter which goes beyond all other” Australian trade deals. “We were clear throughout negotiations that we would not sacrifice quality for speed, which was why there was no deadline to conclude the free trade agreement,” a spokesperson said. More

A crucial by-election in the Conservative stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton is “neck and neck”, according to the Liberal Democrats, who are aiming for a major political upset in the Devon seat.As voters prepare to head to the polls on Thursday in two by-elections, Sir Ed Davey suggested his party “could be on the verge of a historic victory” in the southwest constituency – overturning a 24,000 Tory majority.The second ballot will be held in Wakefield – a “red wall” seat Sir Keir Starmer is hoping to seize back for Labour after it fell to the Tories at the 2019 election for the first time since the constituency was created in 1932.Conservative MPs told The Independent at the weekend a double by-election defeat on Thursday would be a “disaster” for the embattled Boris Johnson, who narrowly survived a vote of no confidence a fortnight ago.Writing in The Independent, polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice suggests that Labour “ought to have little difficulty” in winning the Wakefield by-election by achieving a swing of a little less than 4 per cent.Many Tory MPs are privately expecting a “big defeat” in the Yorkshire constituency after a poll by JL Partners earlier this month gave Labour’s candidate Simon Lightwood a 20-point lead over his Tory rival, Nadeem Ahmed.Sir John said a 20-point lead – representing a swing of around 14 per cent – is “probably the kind of result that the party needs to achieve if it is to suggest that it might be capable of posing a bigger threat to the Conservatives than it did at the last three general elections”.In Tiverton and Honiton, however, the polling expert warned success for the Liberal Democrats “is by no means guaranteed”, and that the collapse of Labour support in the constituency “could well be crucial to the outcome”.He added: “The party is still no stronger in the national polls than it was at the last general election – so it is wholly reliant on the momentum that it can generate locally. Success will depend not only its ability to garner the support of dissatisfied Conservatives but also the tactical support of those who would otherwise vote Labour.” More

The architect of Boris Johnson’s EU trade deal is to declare in a keynote speech that “Brexit is working”.But in a stark contradiction to Mr Johnson’s claim to have “got Brexit done”, David Frost will say that “Brexit is not complete yet”, in part because of the continuing row with Brussels over the Irish border.Despite estimates from the government’s own Office for Budget Responsibility that the long-term impact of EU withdrawal could lower UK GDP by 4 per cent, Lord Frost will insist that suggestions that Brexit has harmed the economy have come only from people with “axes to grind”.And – despite UK threats to break international law by breaching the Northern Ireland protocol he helped to broker – the former Brexit negotiator will accuse Brussels of behaving in a “confrontational” way, and urge the EU to cooperate with Britain as “a trusted partner”.Lord Frost’s comments will come in a speech to the UK in a Changing Europe think tank to mark the sixth anniversary of the 2016 EU referendum on Thursday.Polls in recent years have consistently shown that a majority of Britons believe it was a mistake to vote to leave the EU – most recently by a margin of 49 per cent to 37 per cent.Concerns have been stoked by the intractable dispute over the Irish border, increased red tape for UK exporters, snarl-ups at Channel ports, the return of mobile phone roaming charges, and a loss of benefits for British travellers, such as visa-free passport queues.But Lord Frost will insist: “Brexit is working. We have no cause for regrets about the decision the country has taken.“The solutions to the remaining problems are not to be found in going backwards, but in completing the process and following through on its logic.”His comments come a day after a Resolution Foundation report found that Mr Johnson’s trade deal has made the UK less competitive, with productivity forecast to fall by 1.3 per cent by the end of the decade as a result, and real pay set to be £470 lower per worker than it would have been had Britain stayed in the EU.But Lord Frost will say: “The view that Brexit is hitting us from an economic and trade perspective is generated by those with an axe to grind, and cannot be supported by any objective analysis of the figures.“The UK has grown at much the same pace as other G7 countries since the referendum, and, as the Office for National Statistics points out, our goods exports to the EU are at the highest level ever.”In a swipe at the slow progress made by No 10 in delivering the benefits of Brexit, Lord Frost will say that EU withdrawal was not an end in itself but a “necessary gateway to a project of national renewal”, adding: “The government needs to get on with defining and implementing that project.”And he will say that if the EU wants a stronger relationship with the UK, it must adjust its behaviour over Northern Ireland.“Does the EU want Brexit to work?” he will ask. “Can it rise above the current frictions and work with the UK as a trusted partner, or will it continue to hassle and lecture us?”He will add that a “new entente cordiale” could be built between the UK and its European neighbours, but it will depend on the EU being “more open to change the protocol” and agreeing to “mutual de-escalation on various border and visa issues”.He will continue: “That still seems a possible way forward to me – but it takes two. Our destiny is in our hands. We can, and I hope will, succeed, whatever the EU does – it will just be more difficult for all concerned if the EU insists on being difficult and confrontational rather than collaborative.“It would be much better to put the history behind us – on both sides – and concentrate on making this new relationship work. There is absolutely no reason why that can’t happen. It just takes vision – it just takes will.” More

Millions of rail passengers across Britain face fresh disruption on Thursday after the RMT union accused the government of “wrecking” negotiations.Rail services are being severely disrupted this week after around 40,000 members of the union, working for Network Rail and 13 train operators, voted to stage walkouts in a row over jobs, pay and conditions. Talks were held on Wednesday between the union and industry bosses in a bid to break the deadlock, but they ended without agreement.Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said: “Grant Shapps has wrecked these negotiations by not allowing Network Rail to withdraw their letter threatening redundancy for 2,900 of our members.“Until the government unshackle Network Rail and the train operating companies, it is not going to be possible for a negotiated settlement to be agreed.”He added: “We will continue with our industrial campaign until we get a negotiated settlement that delivers job security and a pay rise for our members that deals with the escalating cost of living crisis.”Just 60 per cent of trains are running on Wednesday, and some operators will wind down services earlier than normal ahead of the next round of action.The third and final strike of the week is planned for Saturday.However, in a breakthrough, members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association working for Merseyrail have accepted a pay offer that the union’s leaders say is worth 7.1 per cent.General secretary Manuel Cortes described it as “a sensible outcome to a reasonable offer”.A survey of more than 2,300 people by Savanta ComRes showed that more than half (58 per cent) thought the industrial action was justified. More

New asylum seekers are being locked up in order to be deported to Rwanda even after court challenges raised questions about whether the controversial removal flights would ever be able to begin.Campaigners accused ministers of being “untethered from any sense of morality or legality” after it emerged that people seeking refuge in Britain have been placed in detention centres following the grounding of last week’s planned flight.The Rwanda policy will be subject to a judicial review hearing on 18 July, where a High Court judge will assess whether it is lawful.On Wednesday, the most senior civil servant in the Home Office admitted that the policy may even fail in its stated aim of deterring migrants from attempting the dangerous journey across the Channel by small boat.It comes as Boris Johnson flew to Rwanda to attend a commonwealth summit. He is set to meet Prince Charles in Kigali for the first time since it was revealed that the heir to the throne had described the deportation plan as “appalling” in private remarks.The first planned flight in support of the policy, under which the government hopes to “relocate” asylum seekers to the central African country in a bid to deter them from using small boats to cross the Channel, was thwarted last week following an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).A total of 979 people have crossed the Channel since the flight was cancelled at the last minute, according to Home Office data.The government had detained around 130 asylum seekers ahead of the flight, but only issued removal tickets to 47 of them. The majority of the 130 are thought to remain in detention, and detainees are only being released upon submitting a successful bail application to the court.Despite no further flights being scheduled at this stage, new asylum seekers have continued to be detained and informed that they may be removed to Rwanda. The Independent is aware of at least 18 such cases.Clare Mosely, founder of Care4Calais, said the charity was in touch with a number of people in this situation. She said: “[The government is] ploughing ahead with this plan while totally ignoring the human consequences.“I imagine it just wants to deport some people as soon as possible. They don’t care how they do it, but they want the headline. I think they’re just hedging their bets.”Steve Crawshaw, director of policy and advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said it was “deeply disturbing” that the government was continuing to detain refugees and threaten them with removal to Rwanda.“We know from our work with torture survivors how traumatising the experience of detention can be. Given the ECHR’s ruling blocked removals until outstanding legal challenges can be heard, this seems to be a cruel attempt to intimidate vulnerable people by a government untethered from any sense of morality or legality,” he added. More

The UK drinks industry has responded with alarm to a proposal from Jacob Rees-Mogg that post-Brexit deregulation could include allowing sparkling wine to be sold in plastic bottles.The Brexit opportunities minister identified a rule requiring fizz to be sold in glass bottles as one of the Brussels regulations which could be expunged from UK law following EU withdrawal.But the Wine and Spirits Trade Association warned that any change must not jettison health and safety requirements, with the high pressure created by bubbles during fermentation making plastic an improbable and expensive choice of container.“The WSTA – and the world-leading UK wine industry – are very keen to make the most of any post-Brexit opportunities to help the industry recover and grow. This includes removing unnecessary and costly red tape,” chief executive Miles Beale told The Independent. “But not at the expense of basic health and safety.“Sparkling wine contains roughly the same pressure as the tyre of a large van. The English sparkling wine PDO (protected designation of origin) requires bottle fermentation, like Champagne does, which requires a container that could safely withstand that sort of pressure for long periods in a cellar or on shelves.Other formats for some sparkling wines are possible, but plastic bottles would not be the first choice.”Mr Beale said that the adaptation of bottling lines and retooling to accommodate different types of packaging, such as plastic, would impose “significant” costs. And there would be “significant environmental concerns” about switching from recyclable and reusable glass to plastic.“All in all, this proposal is unlikely to be economically viable in the relatively small volumes we are talking about – or sustainable,” he said.Mr Rees-Mogg’s comment came as Labour denounced his new Brexit dashboard as a “gimmick”, which will be updated every three months to show how many of the 2,400 pieces of EU legislation still in place in the UK have been removed.The Cabinet Office minister said the dashboard would ensure the public can “join us on this journey to amend, repeal or replace” retained EU law in a bid to cut at least £1bn of business costs from “EU red tape”.Giving examples of the kind of red tape he wants to sweep away, he said: “Did you know you can’t sell sparkling wine in a plastic bottle? You may think drinking sparkling wine out of a plastic bottle is dreadful, but if you want to, why should there be a law stopping you?”The WTSA is currently campaigning against planned changes to alcohol duties hailed by Boris Johnson as a benefit of Brexit, but regarded by the industry as damagingly complex.Labour’s Stephen Doughty described Mr Rees-Mogg’s dashboard as “a vanity project”.“It’s quite extraordinary that on the day that inflation tops 9 per cent, [while] the cost of energy is soaring, families [are] facing massive pressures wondering how they will put food on the table, [and] prices [are] rising at the fastest rate of increase for 40 years, the government’s offer today to the British people is a digital filing cabinet of existing legislation, which the gentleman describes, in his own words, as marginal,” said the shadow foreign minister.Mr Rees-Mogg later acknowledged that many of the 2,400 rules were of limited significance in themselves.But he told reporters: “It’s going to be lots and lots of little things. But these little things add up into something that is fundamental and revolutionary.“Each and every one of them is something which is easy for people to pooh-pooh and say ‘What’s the point of this effort? The mountain heaved and brought forth a miserable mouse.’ But this is bringing forth elephants cumulatively.”Mr Rees-Mogg recently appealed to readers of a tabloid newspaper for suggestions of which EU regulations to slash.As well as fizz in plastic bottles, he today suggested that changes could be made to end limits on the power of vacuum cleaners, scrap mandatory training update courses for HGV drivers or abolish rules which require B&B hotels to register as package tour operators if they provide vouchers to dine in local restaurants.He rejected suggestions that a bonfire of rules would turn the UK into a “Wild West” unregulated zone, and insisted that his drive was “not about lowering standards”.Despite a string of reports – including from the government’s own Office for Budget Responsibility – suggesting that Brexit has cut UK GDP, Mr Rees-Mogg refused to give any estimate of how much benefit or damage it was doing to the economy, saying it was impossible to know how Britain would have fared if it had stayed.He told MPs: “With inflation running high we need to search everywhere and under every stone and sofa cushion for supply-side reforms that make products and services cheaper, make things easier for business and ultimately grow the economy and cut the cost of living.” More

Labour’s Angela Rayner has demanded No 10’s chief of staff declare any meetings ministers may have held where scrapping a cap on bankers’ bonuses has been discussed.It comes after the government faced intense criticism and accusations of hypocrisy this week over plans to cut controls on City bosses’ pay while calling for wage restraint in the public sector.In a letter to Cabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay, Labour’s deputy leader questioned the government’s “priorities” and said the plans were of “huge concern”.Her letter follows a report in the Financial Times in June 2021 that suggested the issue of a cap on bankers’ bonuses was raised by an international bank chief executive at a “virtual” financial services roundtable the same month.At the time, chancellor Rishi Sunak, who attended the meeting alongside Boris Johnson, was said to be resisting pressure to ditch the cap — a measure introduced after the 2008 financial crash which limits bonuses to the size of a banker’s salary.In today’s letter, Ms Rayner called on Mr Barclay to immediately release the minutes of the meeting with banking executives, and demanded to know whether any further meetings had occurred where the issue was discussed.Labour’s deputy leader also requested to know whether the issue has ever been brought up by a Conservative party donor.Ms Rayner also highlighted a leaked letter detailing government plans to alter rules on director and non-executive director pay, which sparked outrage among opposition parties and unions.She said: ”It appears this Government’s “new approach” is to prioritise increasing banker’s bonuses rather than helping working people.“The hypocrisy of removing restrictions for bankers while the public sector face a prolonged period of below-inflation pay rises is clear. It is an indication of where this government’s priorities lie. “A government spokesperson said: “Claims that the government is planning to ease restrictions on bankers’ pay are untrue. Ministerial meetings with external organisations are declared in line with the government’s transparency agenda.“We are exploring whether there are any unnecessary restrictions on paying non-executive directors in shares instead, as we set out at the end of last month. This could ensure they are fully invested in the success of the company they run, helping to protect and generate jobs, growth and investment.“This is about how non-executive directors are paid, not how much. And the proposal has nothing to do with paying bankers more, or the bankers’ bonus cap. This remains in place and there are no plans to remove it.”Responding to Ms Rayner’s letter, a Conservative source said: “Angela Rayner should stop trying to position herself for Labour leadership by wasting time writing pointless letters about false accusations. If Labour had done their research, they would know that the government has never proposed any changes to bankers’ bonuses.“They should spend less time playing politics and misleading the public and more time doing their research.“Labour should also get their own house in order on transparency – they continue to break a Leveson Inquiry pledge to publish which senior media figures they are meeting with.” More

An MP suspended by the Conservatives over allegations of sexual harassment and cocaine use is facing a fresh Commons inquiry.David Warburton was disciplined by his party and is already being investigated by parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS), it is understood.Now the MP for Somerton and Frome is also the subject of a probe the parliamentary standards commissioner into whether he broke the MPs’ code of conduct on three counts.They are “paid advocacy”, failure to declare an interest, and over rules concerning the declaration of “gifts, benefits and hospitality”.Kathryn Stone, the Commissioner, does not have the role of investigating the original allegations made against Mr Warburton, in April.He has brushed off calls to resign – which would plunge the Tory party into another perilous West Country by-election – but has stayed away from parliament, it is believed.The Sunday Times published a photo of Mr Warburton sitting next to what was alleged to be lines of cocaine, at the home of a younger woman he had met through politics it was claimed.It was also reported that he lobbied the Financial Conduct Authority on behalf of a Russian financier who had given him a near-£150,000 loan for a holiday rental property.Warburton insisted at the time that he had “enormous amounts of defence, but unfortunately the way things work means that doesn’t come out first”.In April, transport secretary Grant Shapps said, of Mr Warburton’s conduct: “Obviously, any allegations like this need to be taken extremely carefully, but all the facts will need to be brought out as well.”They emerged as Westminster was engulfed in a torrent of allegations of misogyny, bullying and other bad behaviour, triggering calls for major changes.They have left Boris Johnson braced for two likely by-election defeats this week, which would renew Conservative pressure for him to quitIn Wakefield, Imran Ahmad Khan was forced to resign after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy at a party in 2008.And Neil Parish, an MP for 12 years, quit in Tiverton and Honiton after admitting to watching pornography in the Commons chamber, having been witnessed by two female colleagues. More