Markus Andrews

Civil servants at the Department for Education (DfE) have been forced to work in canteens and corridors due to a shortage of desks after being ordered back into office.Staff have been left struggling to find space to work after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the cabinet secretary for efficiencies, launched a concerted campaign to end home-working.Whole teams have been turned away from some offices because of overcrowding, according to Schools Week.Figures seen by the outlet showed staff outnumber desks by almost two-to-one across the DfE’s 12 offices.It comes amid an ongoing row between the government and unions about the future of home working, which was brought in during Covid lockdowns.In April Mr Rees-Mogg resorted to leaving notes at the desks of workers who were not in the office, saying: “Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you soon.”The move was condemned by civil service unions, who said it was insulting and undermined civil service leadership.Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, this week accused Mr Rees-Mogg of behaving like an “overgrown prefect”.A DfE source confirmed to The Independent that staff had been struggling to find desks.Schools Week reported that in Leeds there are just 24 desks for 110 staff, while Bristol has 95 desks for 299 staff.But civil service bosses have been asked to get staff into the office for at least 80 per cent of their week.Schools Week said that, before the pandemic, DfE, which has 4,200 desks for some 8,000, had an occupancy rate of 60 to 70 per cent.The occupancy rate is now back to around the same level, ministers said earlier this week.Shadow schools ministers Stephen Morgan said the “bizarre fixation on office attendance is utterly laughable”.A DfE spokesperson said hybrid working was “not new and does not stop offices being used at full capacity”. They added full occupancy “does not mean every civil servant working from their desk”, adding it was “common for organisations in the private and public sector not to have space for all their employees”. More

Boris Johnson has insisted No 10 will not block any names being published in the long-awaited report into the Partygate scandal by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray.In his first public remarks since the Metropolitan Police closed its investigation on Thursday — issuing a total of 126 fines — the prime minister said the contents were “entirely” down to Ms Gray.Mr Johnson also said he was “grateful” to the force’s investigation after he escaped further sanctions, leaving him with one fixed penalty notice (FPN) for breaches of Covid regulations.Ms Gray, who was tasked with investigating the rule-busting parties in government buildings earlier this year, had delayed the publication of her report until the Met concluded its own work.The senior civil servant is now expected to make her findings public as soon as next week, with individuals whose involvement will be mentioned expected to be contacted over the weekend.Speaking on a visit to Powys, Wales, on Friday, Mr Johnson declined to apologise again for the rule-braking, saying: “I’m very grateful to the Met for their work, I’m thankful for everything they’ve done.“We just need to wait for Sue Gray to report, fingers’ crossed that will be very soon, and I’ll be saying some more next week.”Pressed on whether No 10 would be blocking any names from appearing in the report, he replied: “That will be entirely up to Sue Gray and I’ll be looking forward very much to seeing what she has to say, and fingers’ crossed that will be pretty soon next week.”His comments also came amid claims in The Times that Scotland Yard is declining to give Ms Gray details about individuals who have been issued with a FPN.Earlier, however, No 10 said it was not aware of any communication between the prime minister and Ms Gray since the police investigation into lockdown gatherings was wrapped up on Thursday.Asked whether Mr Johnson had spoken to or had written communication with the senior official since, a spokesman for the prime minister said: “Not that I’m aware of.”The Downing Street spokesman said he would “not get into specifics” when put to him that Ms Gray‘s team had been in contact with the Prime Minister about the forthcoming report.He said Mr Johnson was committed to publishing the report in the format it is submitted “as soon as possible”, with Ms Gray to determine when it is finalised. More

Channel 4 is calling on Nadine Dorries to provide evidence to back up her claim that the TV company faked a reality show which she starred in.The Culture Secretary – who has unveiled controversial plans to privatise Channel 4 – told a parliamentary committee that she had discovered that actors were hired to play poverty-stricken people on a housing estate.But Channel 4 today said that it had received no previous allegations relating to the contributors to the show, Tower Block of Commons, which was produced by Love Productions and broadcast in 2010 .The documentary show featured four MPs, including Ms Dorries, spending time living on deprived housing estates around Britain.Recalling the residents she met on an estate in London’s Acton neighbourhood during filming, the cabinet minister told the Commons Culture Committee on Thursday: “I discovered later, they were actually actors.“The parents of the boys in that programme actually came here to have lunch with me, and contacted me to tell me, actually, they were in acting school, and that they weren’t really living in a flat, and they weren’t real.“There’s a pharmacist or somebody that I went to see who prepared food – she was also a paid actress as well.”Channel 4 said that it was the first time it had been suggested that the people taking part in the programme were anything other than what they were described as being. They said they were ready to investigate any evidence which Ms Dorries was able to provide.A spokesperson for the channel said: “This is the first suggestion we have heard that viewers were misled about contributors on Tower Block of Commons.“We will be contacting the secretary of state to seek further details so that we can investigate it thoroughly.” More

Senior people in Boris Johnson’s government are blocking a street harassment law aimed at giving women and girls more protection, a top adviser has suggested.Nimco Ali – a close friend of Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie – said her plan to create a new harassment offence had been subject to “pushback” despite support from home secretary Priti Patel.Ms Ali, appointed an independent advisor to Ms Patel in 2020, appeared to suggest that the prime minister was personally opposed to the plan when she appeared on BBC’s Political Thinking podcast.Asked if the resistance had come from the PM’s advisers, she said the source of the pushback had been “a lot closer than that”, adding that people could interpret “my silence”.However, Ms Ali later tweeted BBC host Nick Robinson to say: “I corrected you on the podcast and I did not blame [Mr Johnson] for this.”Downing Street denied any rift between the PM and Ms Ali over the plan to address harassment.“I would point to a tweet from Nimco this morning, where she addresses that and says, ‘I did not blame him’, referring to the prime minister,” said a No 10 spokesperson.Asked whether a law on street harassment was under consideration, Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said: “We will continue to look at where there may be gaps and how specific offences could address those … this remains a top priority for this government.”Ms Ali has been pushing for street harassment, such as sexualised comments, wolf-whistling and persistent staring, to be made a crime.Ms Patel was “very much behind” her campaign, Ms Ali said, before adding: “Then you meet other people saying no … It’s been frustrating and it’s been disappointing.”The murder of Sarah Everard, abducted and raped while walking home in Clapham, south London, sparked demands for more to be done to protect women’s safety.Asked whether some of the “energy” had gone out of the campaign to better protect women and girls, the Home Office adviser replied: “No, it hasn’t gone.“Just because it’s not in the mainstream media at the moment, it doesn’t mean that the home secretary and also the minister for women’s safety Rachel Maclean, are not committed to this.”Ms Ali also spoke about her friend Carrie Johnson, describing the abuse she had suffered had been “horrific”.Asked about Ms Johnson’s campaigning work, she said: “This is a person that is actually renowned and able to do things in her own right. I think it’s actually quite sexist to reduce her to the wife of the prime minister.” More

An ex-Labour MP must pay £434,435 to a parliamentary worker he sexually assaulted and harassed.Mike Hill, who was the MP for Hartlepool in north east England, was found to have infringed the Equality Act by sexually harassing and then sacking one of his former workers.A panel at the Central London Employment Tribunal discovered the 58-year-old “victimised” the woman as well as subjecting her to “unwanted conduct of a sexual nature”.A judgment published on Wednesday said Mr Hill was accused of sexually harassing and bullying the claimant, referred to as Ms A, over a 16-month period when he was in office.Mr Hill, who was an MP from 2017 until he resigned last year, has denied the allegations.In her witness statement included in the judgment, Ms A said Mr Hill sexually assaulted her on a number of occasions.The claimant said he got into bed with her in December 2017 and rubbed his genitals “against my bottom and had his arms wrapped around me and was feeling my breasts”.She said: “I managed to get out of the bed and went to the living room. I was crying and shaking because of the experience.”She said Mr Hill told her she was “overreacting”, must be “frigid or something” and there must be “something wrong” with her.The judgment said Mr Hill was also accused of coming into the woman’s bedroom on several occasions from December 2017 to February 2018.Mr Hill is also said to have sexually assaulted Ms A on a number of occasions in his Westminster office.Ms A said in her witness statement: “He often put his arms around the front of my body and brushed his hands against my breasts.“If I were standing up, he would always approach me from behind and he would hold me by my waist. I would always resist and would try to get him off me but did not always succeed.”She added: “Mr Hill would touch my bottom. When he first did this, I asked him not to do it again but, as he did then (and afterwards), he always played it down as if it was my problem and I was making more of it than I should.”The judgment also said Mr Hill terminated the claimant’s employment.The panel also found that he failed to give the claimant a promised pay rise, made her work through the summer recess despite a previous promise she would not have to, and refused to let her travel to work by car unless she submitted an occupational health assessment. The politician was also found to have not replied to emails and texts which the claimant sent about work.The judgment said the panel also heard that Ms A told Tory MP Andrew Bridgen of her allegations of sexual impropriety against Mr Hill.Mr Bridgen then accused Kate Hollern, a Labour MP, of warning him not to get involved in the harassment case.Ms Hollern quit as shadow minister in May 2021 after an employment tribunal heard that she tried to intimidate Mr Bridgen as a witness.In a previous statement, she said: “I am absolutely clear that any complaint of sexual harassment should be treated extremely seriously and had this been raised with me I would have taken the necessary action.“It was never my intention to undermine the support the complainant was receiving, which I was unaware of at the time. If that is what Mr Bridgen was led to believe, I apologise for my error in judgment in having the conversation.”Mr Hill was suspended from the Labour Party in September 2019 over the allegations were made but was reinstated in October of that year to fight the general election.He resigned from his seat in March 2021, prompting the by-election that saw the former red wall seat of Hartlepool swing dramatically to the Conservatives.Additional reporting by Press Association More

Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, has said he is “absolutely delighted” his application to become a French citizen has been approved after submitting his documents last year.The 81-year-old former member of the European Parliament, who has family ties to the country, told The Independent it was “very nice gesture” from the authorities in France.On Friday, a justice ministry source in Paris confirmed that the application of the prime minister’s father “was successful”, and that he would be invited to an official ceremony.This would see him welcomed as a bone fide French citizen underneath the Tricolour, with La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, playing.Another source told AFP: “Based on the facts in his application, and without a refusal by the justice minister, Mr Stanley Johnson acquired French nationality on 18 May, 2022”.They added: “The decision concerns only Mr Stanley Johnson and does not extend to his descendants”.The development also means that Mr Johnson, who campaigned to Remain in 2016 before suggesting Brexit was “probably a good idea” last month, retains all the rights of EU citizenship that British subjects lost after the end of the transition period.Speaking to The Independent, Mr Johnson Snr said he was still waiting to hear from authorities in France, but added: “I’m absolutely delighted to hear this.“If it’s true, I’m absolutely delighted we seem to have made some progress on that I shall very much look forward to visiting the French consulate in London”.He went on: “It means a lot — of course it doesn’t mean I’m renouncing my British citizenship.“It’s a very nice gesture. From my point of view I think it’s tremendously important to build these bridges — whether I’m a bridge is another matter — with the EU and of course France”.A grinning Mr Johnson Snr also spoke fluently in the language of Molière when he appeared on BFM – the country’s largest TV news outlet – on Friday morning.“I’m very happy,” he said. “It means a lot. My mother was born in Paris. For me it’s something very precious, it’s a part of my identity.’As presenter Bruce Toussaint congratulated him, Mr Johnson read the statement provided to AFP news agency, saying he had “acquired French nationality on 18 May, 2022”.Mr Johnson said he had technically “always been French” through his mother, Irene Williams, despite being born in Penzance, Cornwell. “My mother was born in France, her mother was completely French as was her grandmother,” he said.“Europe is more than the single market, it’s more than the European Union. I am European in that sense.”Mr Johnson, a former member of the European Parliament, confirmed that he filled out his application at the French consulate in London last November.As well as being a former MEP, he is also an ex-employee of the European Commission, and lived with his family living in Brussels in the 1970s.He supported Remain prior to the 2016 EU referendum – putting him at odds with his son Boris Johnson’s position as the figurehead for the Vote Leave campaign.However, weeks into Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the former MEP wrote in The Daily Telegraph in April: “I write this as a once impassioned Remainer, but I have to admit that my faith in the ‘European project has been shaken.“I said as much in a recent radio interview, which caused quite a stir, but I stand by my view that Ukraine has shown that Brexit was probably a good idea.”French law normally prevents children of its citizens from claiming nationality if their family has been abroad for more than 50 years without making use of their rights.But their applications can still be considered if they can prove “concrete ties of a cultural, professional, economic or family nature” with France – a clause Mr Johnson invoked in his application.Around 3,100 British people acquired French nationality in 2020, according to the latest figures available from EU statistics agency Eurostat, making France the second most popular choice for acquiring European citizenship, after Germany. More

Rishi Sunak has become the first frontline politician to appear in the Sunday Times Rich List alongside his wife, Akshata Murty, with their joint £730 million fortune.It comes just days after the chancellor said the coming months would be “tough” amid a cost-of-living crisis, with families across the country facing soaring energy bills and inflation at a 40-year high.Despite intense political pressure, Boris Johnson and Mr Sunak have so far resisted calls for an emergency budget, a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, and further help for the poorest households.It also follows intense scrutiny over Mr Sunak and his wife’s financial affairs, after The Independent revealed Ms Murty, the daughter of one of India’s richest men, had been claiming non-dom status in the UK.The tax status typically applies to someone who was born overseas and spends much of their time in the UK, but still considers another country to be their permanent residence or “domicile”.It has been estimated Ms Murty’s non-dom status could have saved her £20 million in taxes on dividends from her shares in Infosys, an Indian IT company founded by her father.After a furious political row, Ms Murty agreed to pay UK tax on her worldwide income, including dividends and capital gains, saying she did not want her tax status “to be a distraction for my husband”.Mr Sunak was also cleared of breaching the ministerial code by Boris Johnson’s standards adviser after considering his declarations.On Friday morning, the annual Sunday Times Rich List revealed they featured at 222 in the list with the joint forecast of £730 million, driven by Ms Murty’s £690 million stake in Infosys.Asked about the news, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said it was “fantastic” the chancellor had joined the rich list.He added: “I think we want more of those people. I think it’s fantastic that you’ve got someone of British-Indian origin, showing all people in our country that you can get to the top of politics.“And frankly, I think if I understood correctly, the Sunday Times Rich List was a reflection of not just him but his wife. His wife is an incredibly successful entrepreneur in her own right.“Again someone that’s here, British-Indian, and actually I think we want to see more women succeeding in both business and politics.”The latest ranking of the 250 richest people in Britain also revealed a record 177 billionaires in the UK this year, up from 2021.Overall, the richest 250 in the UK this year are worth £710.72 billion, compared to £658.09 billion in 2021, an 8 per cent rise on last year, the Sunday Times said.On Wednesday, it was revealed that prices rose at their fastest rate in more than 40-years in the 20 months to April, with inflation climbing to a fresh record of 9 per cent — up from 7 per cent in March.At an address to the Confederation of British Industry on the same day, Mr Sunak said: “I cannot pretend this will be easy.“There is no measure that any government could take, no law we could pass, that can make these global forces disappear overnight. The next few months will be tough. But where we can act, we will.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

The US Congress will not agree to a free trade deal with the UK if Boris Johnson plunges ahead with a plan to “discard” the Northern Ireland Protocol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said.The leader of the US House of Representatives said it was “deeply concerning” the British government was planning to unilaterally end protocol checks previously agreed with the EU.Ms Pelosi said she had previously told Mr Johnson and foreign secretary Liz Truss that if they choose to “undermine” the Good Friday Agreement, then Congress “cannot and will not support a bilateral free trade agreement with the UK”.Mr Johnson and Ms Truss have insisted they do not plan to tear up the protocol completely, but aim to unilaterally “fix” the agreement through new legislation to override parts of the Brexit deal.However, the powerful US figure issued a stern rebuke. She said that maintaining arrangements designed to ensure there is no hard border in Ireland was “absolutely necessary” to uphold Good Friday Agreement.“It is deeply concerning that the UK is now seeking to unilaterally discard the Northern Ireland Protocol,” Ms Pelosi said in a statement issued on Thursday.“Negotiated agreements like the protocol preserve the important progress and stability forged by the Good Friday Accords, which continue to enjoy strong bipartisan and bicameral support in the US Congress,” Ms Pelosi added.The US speaker urged Mr Johnson’s government to resume “constructive, collaborative and good-faith negotiations” with the EU to implement “an agreement that upholds peace”.US president Joe Biden downplayed the prospect of a trade deal with the UK when he met Mr Johnson in September, when the prime minister was forced to admit: “Joe has a lot of fish to fry.”His administration is understood to be reluctant to enter talks on a comprehensive post-Brexit deal because of his concerns about the ongoing row with the EU over Northern Ireland. More