Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit plan to bring back imperial measurements is “complete and utter nonsense”, according to Asda chair Stuart Rose.In a scathing attack, the Conservative peer said the push to boost the use of pounds, ounces and other outmoded weights and measures would only “add cost” and confusion to businesses.“I’ve never heard such nonsense in my life,” Lord Rose told Times Radio on Thursday, branding it a “backwards” step aimed at pleasing nostalgic voters.“I mean, we have got serious problems in the world and we’re now saying let’s go backwards. Does anybody in this country below the age of about 40 know how many ounces there are in a pound?” the Asda chief asked.Lord Rose said the government was pushing ahead with the plan “just to actually please a small minority of people who hark for the past. It’s complete and utter nonsense and it will add cost to those people who have to put it into place.”The former boss of Marks & Spencer added: “I am shocked. It’s one thing having a crown on your pint glass, which is a bit of fun and a bit of nostalgia. It’s quite another having a whole dual system of weights and measures.”The government is set to consult industry on how to reintroduce imperial units in Britain after quitting the EU, with ministers expected to officially announce the move today to coincide with the Queen’s platinum jubilee.The idea has already faced criticism from the Tory backbenches, with Rutland and Melton MP Alicia Kearns branding it “a nonsense”. Labour has accused Mr Johnson of trying to “weaponise nostalgia”.Last week, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis claimed voters and businesses would be “pleased” that the government was set to open the door to greater use of imperial units.But the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the umbrella body representing the big supermarkets, has warned that the move could be “distracting” and costly at a time when food chiefs were trying to tackle inflationary pressures during the cost of living crisis.Ministers have argued that it would give the likes of greengrocers and pub landlords greater choice over running their businesses, as well as bringing “national culture” back into shops.Mr Lewis said that, while the policy was “light-hearted”, there were many people who “want to go back” to using pounds and ounces, and measures such as yards and miles.The EU weights and measures directive came into force in 2000, with traders legally required to use metric units for sale by weight or the measure of fresh produce.It remains legal to price goods in pounds and ounces, but they have to be displayed alongside the price in grams and kilograms.The consultation, which is being coordinated by the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), could change those stipulations, allowing traders to choose how they price fresh items.The Independent understands that there will not be a move away from metric units, but the consultation will look at where it makes sense to incorporate or switch to imperial measurements such as feet and yards, and pints and gallons.A Tory minister struggled to convert imperial measurements during an interview on Sky News earlier this week, despite Downing Street claiming the system is “universally understood”.Arts minister Stephen Parkinson gave incorrect answers when Kay Burley asked him to convert ounces and grams into pounds. More

A senior Conservative MP has called for Boris Johnson’s government to take the UK back into the EU single market to help ease the cost of living crisis.Tobias Ellwood, the defence select committee chair, said Brexit had left British business “strangled” by red tape – insisting that it was time to “think outside the box”.The leading Tory MP urged the government to look again at forging a Norway-style relationship with the EU, allowing access to the single market through the European Economic Area (EEA).Writing in The House magazine, Mr Ellwood claimed that the move would see post-Brexit paperwork costing firms £7bn removed and help ease inflationary pressures on hard-pressed families.“Sector after sector is being strangled by the red tape we were supposed to escape from,” said the Tory MP – arguing that Brexit has not turned to be what “most people imagined”.Speaking about his proposal on Times Radio on Thursday, Mr Ellwood said: “I’m daring to think outside the box … that’s what we need to do at the moment, given the economic situation we face.”He added: “It would strengthen our economy because it would remove so much red tape, it would ease the cost of living crisis, and it would actually settle the difficult Irish question on the Northern Ireland Protocol.”But David Frost – No 10’s former Brexit negotiator – denounced Mr Ellwood’s surprise call. The hardliner said Mr Ellwood’s intervention “shows Brexit really is not safe in his hands or his allies”.Senior Tory backbencher Mark Harper also rejected the idea, tweeting: “No. The UK voted to leave the EU. That meant leaving the single market and putting an end to freedom of movement. The end.”Labour has been keen to avoid talking about Brexit, given the subject has caused significant electoral problems for the party in large parts of the country.But backbencher MP Stella Creasy – chair of the Labour Movement for Europe – praised Mr Ellwood’s for “speaking out”, adding: “For sake of jobs, peace and equality, UK must discuss our future with Europe.” Treasury minister Simon Clarke said he was “pleased to reassure” Mr Ellwood that Britain would not be rejoining the single market – claiming the move would “extinguish half the freedoms that make Brexit so important”.Mr Ellwood acknowledged that being in the single market would mean signing up to freedom of movement – something many Tory MPs were determined to avoid in the years running about to the final Brexit deal.But the senior Tory pointed out that being part of the EU’s Dublin convention could lead to better co-operation with other near neighbours when it comes to asylum seekers.Mr Ellwood also argued that re-joining the single market would boost the UK’s “European credentials” at a time of greater threat from Russia, as well as bringing Britain closer to the US.He asked: “Would it not be churlish for us not to think would our heads, do the maths and ask ourselves if this economically is in the nation’s interests?”James Withers, head of Scotland Food and Drink, said Mr Ellwood’s intervention was a “timely, welcome reminder from that Brexit is doable without shooting ourselves in both feet”.But he said the fuss caused by his proposal “is a sign of how much we have lost in the battle between ideology and sensible governing”.Meanwhile, Mr Ellwood called for “civility” in the Tory party as it wrestles with the leadership question, as he confirmed he had sent a letter of no-confidence in Mr Johnson months ago.Asked about briefings by the PM’s allies against rebel backbenchers, he told Times Radio: “I’m worried about the language now being used. I do worry about where [the debate] is descending. The party itself must work together, whatever happens.”He added: “But you can’t get away from the fact that there are genuine concerns [about Johnson’s leadership]. It’s reflected the polling, local elections and no doubt in the by-elections as well. And those issues do need to be addressed.” More

Brexit has led to a decline in crops and fewer home-grown products on the shelves of Britain’s supermarkets, farming chiefs have warned.Farmers in Kent told a visiting group of MPs that it has become easier to import some fruits than harvest them because of strict limits on the seasonal workers from the EU.Winterwood Farms, an agricultural giant based in the county, said its UK farms had been forced to leave 8 per cent of their fruit crop unharvested and would be planting less in future.Stephen Taylor, managing director of Winterwood in Maidstone, said the government’s advice to replace lost EU labour with British workers and robots shows how “out of touch” ministers have become.“The flow of people coming from Europe to work for the summer has declined every year since Brexit, particularly the last two summers, and as a direct result we are now growing less and importing more,” he said.Calling for more flexible seasonal work visas, he added: “The government could still allow the same people to carry out the harvest – but it has inexplicably decided to choke the industry instead.”Labour MP Hilary Benn led a delegation MPs and industry chiefs to visit Winterwood’s farms in Kent to see the difficulties they are facing with labour shortages.They were told the problem had hit the whole farming sector – resulting in less fresh, more expensive imported fruit in British supermarkets to cover the shortfall.The UK Trade and Business Commission delegation, which is examining the impact of Brexit, also heard that British farmers’ off-season trade has also been badly hit.Farmers could previously sell any surplus from overseas operations to EU markets, but new Brexit red tape means they must now pay to dispose of this fruit.Mr Benn, co-convenor of the commission, said the government’s immigration and trade policies were “raising questions over our food security”.The senior Labour MP added: “It is essential that ministers urgently consider the introduction of more flexible visas for seasonal workers and negotiate better trading terms on fresh produce with our European neighbours.” More

The benefit cap should be reconsidered to prevent some of the UK’s poorest families missing out on a huge boost to their income, one of its Tory architects has suggested. Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader who was the work and pensions secretary when it was introduced, said he would be in favour of looking again at the limit. Benefits payments are set to soar by up to 10 per cent from next April, to keep up with the rate of inflation, the chancellor has confirmed. But more than 120,000 households will not see a penny extra, despite the cost of living crisis, because of the cap, which acts as a ceiling on how much they can receieve from the state. Asked if the cap should now rise, Mr Duncan Smith said: “I would certainly be in favour of looking at it.” More

Ousting Boris Johnson over Partygate would be an “exceptionally silly” thing to do, Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned wavering Conservative MPs.Fellow cabinet minister Priti Patel has also rallied the PM’s defence, telling backbencher Tories pushing for him to resign to “forget it”.Mr Johnson is growing pressure in the wake of Sue Gray’s report on parties in Downing Street, with almost 30 Tory MPs calling for his resignation and 44 openly questioning his leadership.Some Tory rebels believe they could reach the 54 no-confidence letters needed to trigger a vote on his leadership next week, but the PM’s allies remain defiant – blasting plotters as “self-indulgent, narcissistic and contemptuous”.Me Rees-Mogg told TalkTV that Mr Johnson remains “an enormous electoral asset – I think the idea that a change of leader would help the Conservatives is for the birds”.The Brexit opportunities minister added: “It would be the most divisive thing that the party could do. It’s an exceptionally silly thing to want to try and open the door to Sir Keir Starmer assuming he manages to survive.”Ms Patel told the Daily Mail that writing letters of no-confidence in Mr Johnson was a “sideshow” and the party should be focused on “real challenges that we have to find solutions to”.Culture secretary Nadine Dorries told the BBC that efforts to topple the PM are being co-ordinated by “one or two individuals” for reasons of “personal ambition”.Simon Fell, Tory MP for Barrow and Furness, was the latest to criticise Mr Johnson – attacking the “corrosive culture and a failure of leadership” that allowed the parties to happen in a letter to a constituent shared on social media on Wednesday.Former minister Caroline Dinenage, Tory MP for Gosport, also told constituents she was “not prepared to defend” party leadership, saying: “Those at the top must take responsibility for the culture.”It brings the number of MPs to speak out against his Mr Johnson and question his leadership to 44. But only 28 have explicitly called for him to quit, and the number of no-confidence letters sent to the 1922 committee chair Sir Graham Brady is unknown.Johnson allies told The Times he remains confident he would win any no-confidence vote – which requires he retains the loyalty of 180 MPs.One said: “Would it not be the most self-indulgent, narcissistic and contemptuous thing to decide that now is the time for another three months of Conservative navel-gazing?”Senior Tory MP Tobias Ellwood called for “civility” in the party as it wrestles with the leadership question, as he confirmed he had sent a letter of no-confidence months ago.Asked about briefings against the plotters, he told Times Radio on Thursday: “I’m worried about the language now being used. I do worry about where [the debate] is descending. The party itself must work together, whatever happens.”“But you can’t get away from the fact that there are genuine concerns [about Johnson’s leadership]. It’s reflected the polling, local elections and no doubt in the by-elections as well. And those issues do need to be addressed.”Meanwhile, another parliamentary watchdog intervened in the Partygate saga – insisting that the it was vital for the public to be reassured of “decent standards” in government.Lord Evans, chair of the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday that “you’ve got to raise questions” in light of the scandal.The ex-MI5 chief said it was his committee’s view that it is “critical” for Mr Johnson’s own ethics adviser Lord Geidt to be free to launch his own inquiries into possible breaches of ministerial rules – arguing he was not “sufficiently independent” at the moment. More

Boris Johnson has failed to counter the view that he and his ministers consider themselves above the rules, the leader of a powerful parliamentary ethics watchdog has said.Jonathan Evans, the chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said Mr Johnson’s planned changes to the ministerial code were “highly unsatisfactory” and undermined the role of the prime minister’s ethics adviser.Downing Street announced last week that the code would be updated to remove the expectation for ministers to resign over any breach of the code but would not allow the adviser, currently Lord Geidt, to launch his own investigation into potential breaches.The changes go against recent recommendations by Mr Evans that a change to sanctions be linked to the increased authority of the adviser. Mr Evans said the proposed changes would not “restore public trust” in government standards.Unless Lord Geidt can launch his own investigations without the prime minister’s permission, “suspicion about the way in which the ministerial code is administered will linger”, he said.His remarks came as Priti Patel told colleagues working to remove Mr Johnson over the Partygate scandal to “forget it”. In an interview with the Mail +, the home secretary said the uncertain number of Tory MPs who had submitted letters of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee, was creating a distraction.“Writing letters is a sideshow, quite frankly, rather than focusing on the real challenges that we have to find solutions to,” she said.Ms Patel’s criticism came after Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, said the prime minister’s Tory critics were doing “the opposition’s work”.It remains unknown how many letters Sir Graham has received but at least 30 Tory MPs had publicly called for the prime minister to resign by Wednesday evening.The open condemnations of Mr Johnson have been frequent since the publication of the full Sue Gray report last week – although the government’s record on standards in public life had been under question for a long time prior. Lord Geidt’s predecessor as ethics adviser, Alex Allan, quit in protest after the prime minister overruled his finding that Ms Patel had bullied staff.On Wednesday, the Cabinet Office was forced to deny that Lord Geidt was planning to quit over the ministerial code changes, which he said represented “a low level of ambition” on improving standards.The changes were announced ahead of an inquiry by the Commons privileges committee into whether Mr Johnson lied to parliament over lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street.However, it is unlikely to provide the PM with a get-out if the cross-party panel finds against him, as the new code continues to state that “ministers who knowingly mislead parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the prime minister”. More

Boris Johnson has handed a knighthood to a senior Conservative MP who turned against his leadership and called for his resignation earlier this week.Former cabinet minister Jeremy Wright, Tory MP for Kenilworth and Southam, has been given the gong as part of the Queen’s platinum jubilee birthday honours.The timing of the announcement is awkward for the prime minister, coming only days after Mr Wright condemned Mr Johnson over Partygate and asked him to resign “for the good of this and future governments”.The Tory backbencher said Mr Johnson bore “personal responsibility” for the culture at No 10, arguing that the prime minister would “hinder” the restoration of the government’s reputation.Mr Wright, the former attorney general, was recognised in the honours for his work on the thorny legal issues in the Brexit negotiations and response to the chemical attack in Syria.Meanwhile, former DUP leader and Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster – the first woman to hold either position – was given a damehood for her public service.The top unionist figure was in charge of the DUP when the party propped up Theresa May’s Conservative government in the aftermath of the 2017 general election.Dame Arlene said she was “thrilled and delighted” at the award. “As a big royalist, it’s a huge honour to receive this damehood in the 70th year of Her Majesty’s reign.”Other political figures to receive honours as part of the Queen’s jubilee celebrations include former Tory equalities minister Maria Miller MP and Labour MP Nia Griffith MP, who were both handed damehoods.Ms Miller was recognised for her campaigning work on equalities – having introduced same-sex marriage legislation – while Ms Griffith was also hailed for her campaigning work for women and the LGBT+ community.Labour MP Stephen Timms, who has represented East Ham for almost 30 years, was handed a knighthood. Known for his campaigning work on poverty, the veteran MP chairs the work and pensions select committee.Elsewhere, Tracey Crouch – the Tory MP who led the recent fan-led review of English football – was made an OBE. Fellow Conservative backbencher Chris Skidmore, the former universities minister, was also given an OBE.Mr Skidmore said: “I’m very grateful for the award for my continued work in higher education and the environment since leaving government – though don’t deserve it compared to the thousands of academics and businesses working hard to deliver on our climate commitments.”Jonathan Powell, former No 10 chief of staff under Tony Blair, was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his services to foreign policy.Several UK officials who worked in Afghanistan at the time of the evacuation have also been included in the latest honours list.Dr Martin Longden, former charge d’affaires of the UK mission to Afghanistan, was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. Deputy ambassador to the British Embassy in Kabul, Alexander Pinfield, working there until October 2021, gets an OBE.Last week MPs on the foreign affairs select committee criticised the government’s handling of the evacuation of Kabul – but praised personnel on the ground during Operation Pitting. More

Slovenia’s parliament on Wednesday formally voted into office a new, center-left government, replacing a right-wing one that had pushed the moderate European Union nation toward populism.Lawmakers voted 53-28 for the Cabinet of Robert Golob, head of the liberal-green Freedom Movement party and a former business executive who only recently entered politics. Golob’s Freedom Movement won April 24 elections in Slovenia, defeating the right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa and his Slovenian Democratic Party. Golob has formed an alliance with two left-leaning parties.The new government is a combination of experienced politicians and experts, Golob told parliament earlier on Wednesday.“I’m pleased we have such a good team and I look forward to the weeks, months, years and terms in office ahead, as I know this team will deliver good results,” he said. Golob has said the government would promote social equality, green energy transformation and reform. Slovenia’s citizens will be proud of their new government, he promised.“I think you can already feel it in the last few weeks that the mood is more relaxed, that tensions have eased,” he added.Golob was referring to political tensions under previous PM Jansa, who has faced accusations of fostering divisions and curbing democratic freedoms. A close ally of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Jansa has denied the allegations. More