Markus Andrews

School teachers will not be receiving a pay rise that will keep pace with soaring inflation levels, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has indicated.The cabinet minister said public sector workers would have to accept pay “restraint”, despite growing calls for the government to provide more help with the mounting cost of living crisis.It comes as union leaders warned that both schools and hospitals would suffer a “mass exodus” of staff unless public sector employees receive pay rises matching inflation.Unison said that unless teachers, NHS workers and other public sector staff received “inflation-busting” pay rises, they would quit for better paid work in the private sector.Mr Zahawi confirmed the government was sticking with plans for a 3 per cent pay award in 2022-23, followed by another 2 per cent the following year – despite estimated inflation will hit 10 per cent this year.He told Times Radio: “For more senior staff, we’re looking at a 5 per cent increase over two years. So again, inflation is running ahead of that, of course. But nevertheless, to clarify those two years, well, that’s up to 2023.”Asked to clarify that teachers were not going to get an inflation-linked pay rise and would be forced to “suck up more austerity”, Mr Zahawi said: “Well, I think I hope I’ve described to you that we’re facing a global battle against inflation.”He added: “And the private sector employees, which is about 80 plus per cent of the workforce are having to deal with this as well. And I think it’s incumbent on us in the public sector to also exercise restraint.“I think it’s just worth remembering that, you know, we are going through difficult times with inflation globally,” the education secretary added. “So these are tough decisions.”The Department for Education (DfE) has already urged the national pay review body to stick with 5 per cent pay increases over two years for experienced teachers.However, the DfE has recommend starting salary for teachers hits £30,000 by 2023 – saying a “significant” pay rise is needed for recruitment.The Royal Nursing Union (RNU) recently called for a 5 per cent “above inflation” pay rise for NHS workers, amid warnings of a mass exodus in both hospitals and schools.TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady told The Observer: “If they don’t at least get a proper pay rise and help to reduce workloads, it will be the final straw.”She added: “A mass exodus would send shockwaves through every community, and it would damage our economy too. Ministers must be much more alive to this danger. They cannot let it happen.”Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “If the government doesn’t deliver inflation-busting wage increases across the entire public sector, staff will exit for better-paid, less stressful jobs. That would leave services unable to cope.”Mr Zahawi denied reports of rifts in cabinet, with No 10 said to be “panicking” that chancellor Rishi Sunak has not done enough to ease the cost of living crisis ahead of the May local elections.“I wouldn’t describe it as fractious. I would say it’s every day, every such state has to make difficult decisions, because we’ve had a global pandemic and now of course a war in Europe,” Mr Zahawi told Times Radio.Meanwhile, the education secretary also revealed that 200,000 children are off school in England due to Covid-19 – as he promised more details on rapid testing this week when universal free provision is stopped.Mr Zahawi said more information about lateral flow tests will be set out on Friday, when mass free testing will end in England. He did not rule out more testing in schools when he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “We will say a bit more about testing on April 1”.The education secretary also confirmed that schools across England will be told to provide at least 32.5 hours of teaching a week under a new government plan.The Schools White Paper, published on Monday, will set out the new minimum requirement. Most primary and secondary schools already offer a 32.5-hour week, but the DfE says there are “discrepancies” which they want abolished by 2023.The cabinet minister told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “The average school day is 32-and-a-half hours. Some schools, thousands of schools are 30 minutes lower than that – so we want schools to be, sort of, 9am to 3.30pm.”Mr Zahawi added: “I’d like them all to do it by the end of this year, but I know some will have logistical problems. Which is why we’ve said by next year.”Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Simply adding five or ten minutes to a day is unlikely to bring much, if any, benefit. The government says it will be guided by evidence – they need to meet that undertaking.”Mr Zahawi also vowed to bring in “much tougher guidelines” in response to the “hugely distressing” strip-searching of the black schoolgirl referred to as Child Q.He said on Sunday he will set out a new policy “very soon” in response to the “appalling” incident after the 15-year-old was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at her east London school. “No child should have been exposed to that sort of trauma,” he said.On Tuesday, the long-awaited Special Educational Needs and Disability (Send) Review will also be published. More

Sanctions against Russian oligarchs, banks and businesses could be lifted if Vladimir Putin ends his invasion of Ukraine and commits to “no further aggression”, Liz Truss has said.The foreign secretary said in an interview published on Sunday that the threat of “snapback sanctions” would be retained if the Russian president did attack again.Ms Truss told the Sunday Telegraph that a “negotiations unit” had been established in the Foreign Office to aid possible peace talks.With the Kremlin’s troops struggling, her comments will be seen as a possible incentive for Mr Putin to cut his losses and broker a deal with Ukraine.Moscow has given indications after a month of war that it might scale back its ambitions to fight for control of the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine.But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned he would not give up territory in peace talks as he noted that his troops have delivered “powerful blows” to invading forces.Boris Johnson said that western allies are looking to “steadily ratchet up” the sanctions that have sought to punish Mr Putin and those who prop up his regime.Ms Truss said: “Those sanctions should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.“And also, there’s the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future. That is a real lever that I think can be used.”Her remarks fit with those of her US counterpart Antony Blinken, who has said the travel bans and asset freezes are “not designed to be permanent”.The secretary of state said the sanctions could “go away” in the event of an “in effect, irreversible” withdrawal of Russian troops.Fellow cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi backed foreign secretary Liz Truss’s position that sanctions cannot be lifted from Russia until there is a full withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “It has to be … Absolutely right, I think the Russian illegal invasion has to end and the Russian army has to leave the Ukraine, and it’s up to the Ukrainian people, they must be very much the ones who decide what that peace looks like.”Asked if Moscow was changing strategy to focus on the Donbas region, Mr Zahawi said that the Russian military is having “real problems” on the ground as the Ukrainians have “fought like lions”.Mr Zahawi also said regime change in Russia would be “up to the Russian people”, following the furore over US president Joe Biden’s apparent call for Putin’s removal.The White House has scrambled to row back the US president’s remarks, insisting that Biden was not calling for regime change when he said Putin “cannot remain in power”.Asked if the UK government agreed with Joe Biden that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, Mr Zahwi said: “I think that’s up to the Russian people.”Pressed again if Mr Biden was wrong to say what he did, Mr Zahawi said: “No, what I’m saying to you is the White House has been very clear on this … I think both the United States and the United Kingdom agree that it’s up to the Russian people to decide who should be governing them.”Meanwhile, former head of the civil service Lord Sedwill said that Britain’s defence spending should be increased, and the overseas aid budget, should return to its pre-cut level.The peer, cabinet secretary and national security adviser under Boris Johnson, made the call on Sunday as allies reconsider spending levels in response to the Russian threat.Lord Sedwill suggested national security spending should raise to 4 per cent of GDP to include defence spending increasing up to 2.75 per cent from 2 per cent where it stands now.He also called for aid spending to be brought back to 0.7 per cent of gross national income after the PM slashed it to 0.5 per cent during the Covid pandemic. More

Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday was claiming victory in his nation’s parliamentary election hours before official results were expected.If win is confirmed, that would mean the Labour Party will start its third consecutive term in office, beating out its traditional rival, the Nationalist Party. The election was held Saturday in the Mediterranean island nation of around 400,000 people that is a member of the European Union. “We have a clear indication that the Labour Party will have an absolute majority,” Abela told the Maltese state broadcaster. Labour had the lead in all public opinion polls before the balloting. About 85% of eligible voters cast ballots. Normal turnout usually tops 90%.Abela in January 2020 became prime minister after Joseph Muscat quit amid protests linked to the 2017 car bomb slaying of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who investigated corruption and ties between business interests and politicians in Malta.During the election campaign, the sale of Maltese citizenship to the wealthy came under fire in the campaign amid EU sanctions against Russian oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Nationalists called for the suspension of the sale of citizenship to Russian nationals. Earlier this month, Abela’s government did suspend the sale to both Russian and Belarussian nationals, saying that the existing due diligence checks can’t be carried out effectively in the current scenario of war.Muscat had been under pressure to step down after the arrest of a prominent local businessman, Yorgen Fenech. An independent inquiry, published in July 2021, into the bombing found that the Maltese state had to “bear responsibility” for the journalist’s assassination due to the culture of impunity that emanated from the highest levels of government at the time.As in much of southern Europe, high prices have been hurting energy consumers. The Maltese government is subsidizing energy costs to keep prices stable, and both parties in the campaign had pledges to continue the subsidies.Abela’s government was generally seen as having successfully managed the Covid-19 pandemic, with a number of measures to support businesses and workers, keeping unemployment low. But a move by the government to issue tax refund and stimulus checks to the public halfway through the campaign sparked controversy. More

Rishi Sunak has been branded “Mr Tax” by Labour as they accused him of “acting in his own interest” rather than those of Britons.Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth gave the nickname to Mr Sunak while warning that pensioners have been “cutting back on hot meals” and “forgoing hot showers” as they cannot afford the cost.Mr Ashworth told Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News: “Rishi Sunak absolutely had more room for manoeuvre in this spring statement and mini budget, but rather than acting in the interests of the British people, he was playing games.

He’s expecting people to be grateful because two years down the road he’s saying there’s going to be an income tax cut even though that income tax cut nowhere near offsets the 15 tax rises that he has imposed on the British peopleJon Ashworth“He was acting in his own interest because he thinks by offering an income tax cut in two years that’ll help him politically with Conservative MPs if there’s a leadership contest or that’ll fit the Tory election grid.“I don’t believe that putting 1.3 million people into poverty because you’re imposing a very severe real-terms cut to universal credit, you’re imposing the biggest cut to the pension in 50 years, is fair.”The government will uprate benefits by 3.1% in April although the inflation rate is expected to average nearly 8% over the year.Mr Ashworth said Mr Sunak should have imposed a “windfall tax” on the profits of oil and gas companies to generate funds to help struggling families and pensioners with energy bills. More

<img src="https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/02/23/17/3ba1c27812e4121327c6fe3b812f93eeY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjQ1NzIwMDM0-2.48677581.jpg?quality=75&width=982&height=726&auto=webp" srcset="https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/02/23/17/3ba1c27812e4121327c6fe3b812f93eeY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjQ1NzIwMDM0-2.48677581.jpg?quality=75&width=320&auto=webp&crop=982:726,smart 320w, https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/02/23/17/3ba1c27812e4121327c6fe3b812f93eeY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjQ1NzIwMDM0-2.48677581.jpg?quality=75&width=640&auto=webp&crop=982:726,smart 640w" alt=" Children would need to be taught from 8.45am to 3.15pm under the new proposals ” height=”726″ width=”982″ layout=”responsive” data-hero i-amphtml-ssr class=”i-amphtml-layout-responsive i-amphtml-layout-size-defined” i-amphtml-layout=”responsive”> Children would need to be taught from 8.45am to 3.15pm under the new proposals Schools across the country will be told to provide at least […] More

Regime change in Russia would be “up to the Russian people”, a cabinet minister in Boris Johnson’s government has said following the furore over Joe Biden’s remarks about Vladimir Putin’s removal.The British government distanced itself from the US president’s apparent call for regime change in Russia after he said in an impassioned speech that Putin “cannot remain in power”.The White House has scrambled to row back the US president’s remarks, insisting that Biden was “not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change” with the comments made in Poland.Asked if the UK government agreed with Joe Biden that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, Nadhim Zahawi said: “I think that’s up to the Russian people.”Pressed further about the US president’s comments on regime change, the education secretary told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “It’s an illegal invasion of Ukraine and that must end, and I think that’s what the president was talking about.”Pressed again if Mr Biden was wrong to say what he did, Mr Zahawi said: “No, what I’m saying to you is the White House has been very clear on this, the president gave a very powerful speech on this.”He added: “I think both the United States and the United Kingdom agree that it’s up to the Russian people to decide who should be governing them.”The cabinet minister said the Russian people “are pretty fed up with what is happening in Ukraine, this illegal invasion, the destruction of their own livelihoods, their economy is collapsing around them”, adding: “I think the Russian people will decide the fate of Putin and his cronies.”But he declined to criticise Mr Biden, unlike Tobias Ellwood, the senior Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, who said Mr Putin will now “spin this, dig in and fight harder”.Mr Zahawi also backed foreign secretary Liz Truss’s view that sanctions cannot be lifted from Russia until there is a full withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.He told Sky News: “I think the Russian illegal invasion has to end and the Russian army has to leave the Ukraine, and it’s up to the Ukrainian people, they must be very much the ones who decide what that peace looks like.”Ms Truss said sanctions against Russian oligarchs, banks and businesses could be lifted if Putin ends his invasion and commits to “no further aggression”.The foreign secretary told the Sunday Telegraph a “negotiations unit” had been established in the Foreign Office to aid possible peace talks – but warned that that the threat of “snapback sanctions” would be retained if the Russian president did attack again.The White House has scrambled to play down Biden’s remarks in Poland on Saturday. “For God’s sake this man cannot remain in power,” the US president said at the close of his speech of the Russian president he earlier described as a “butcher”.But a White House official tried to argue that the US president was only making the point that the Russian leader “cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region … He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change”.The Kremlin responded: “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”The senior Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett said many people would sympathise with the sentiments that led Biden to say that Putin “cannot remain in power”.Dame Margaret said: “I rather like what we’ve seen in Joe Biden. I know that he gets a lot of criticism but he strikes me as being somebody who has strong feelings and is inclined to then just voice them.“I’m sure that his staff and the people around him are right to say America’s not calling for regime change, but equally I think many people will sympathise with the sentiments that led him to say what he did.”Richard Haass, a veteran US diplomat who is president of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said Mr Biden’s remarks made “a dangerous situation more dangerous” when the strategy should be focused on de-escalation. More

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is said to be considering a new tax rebate as part of further support for families after his spring statement failed to ease growing fears about living costs.Mr Sunak is now “weighing up” a further rebate on council tax bills as part of a new multibillion-pound package after No 10 made clear its “panic” over the cost of living crisis, the Sunday Times reported.“We’ve already looked at this and concluded that council tax is the best way to do it,” a Treasury source told the newspaper. “You’ve got an existing mechanism … It would make sense to do it like that again.”The chancellor came in for heavy criticism for his failure to provide any extra help on energy bills and council tax, beyond the previously-announced £200 loan and a rebate of £150 to those living in properties in council tax bands A to D.Boris Johnson and his team are said to be “panicking” about the impact of the rising food and energy bills ahead of the May local elections.Downing Street special advisers have reportedly been shown private polling showing that the cost of living is now the number one public concern for the British public, surpassing the NHS and healthcare.Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi hinted that Mr Sunak is planning further help with living costs in the months ahead. “I think he will continue to keep an eye on this, it’s only right,” he told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday.He added: “It’s irresponsible for me to say ‘job done’ because energy prices are volatile, inflation remains high, so it would be absolutely irresponsible to say ‘job done’.”Vicky Pryce, former head of the Government Economic Service, said there was “huge tension” between No 10 and the Treasury. She told LBC the chancellor “would like to be seen as someone that brings the finances back to some sort of normality”.Senior Tory MP Stephen Crabb said the chancellor would have to do “more” to help in the spring and summer – arguing it would not be “sustainable” to wait until the next budget in autumn.Mr Sunak has been branded “Mr Tax” by Labour as they attacked “very severe real-terms cuts to the pension and support like universal credit”.Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth gave the nickname to Mr Sunak while warning that pensioners have been “cutting back on hot meals” and “forgoing hot showers” as they cannot afford the cost.Mr Ashworth told Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News: “Rishi Sunak absolutely had more room for manoeuvre in this spring statement and mini budget, but rather than acting in the interests of the British people, he was playing games.”New Labour analysis of the Office of Budget Responsibility figures found that the average households would be hit with rises of £3,000 by 2026/27.The Resolution Foundation think tank has warned that around 1.3 million Britons will be pushed into poverty by the cost-of-living squeeze this year – including some on “middle-incomes”.Senior Tory backbencher Stephen Crabb said the chancellor would have to do “more” to help in the spring and summer – arguing it would not be “sustainable” to wait until the budget in autumn.Food bank bosses have told The Independent that a growing number of middle-class Britons are already coming to them in “desperate” need of help.And there is growing concern about existing poverty in Britain becoming much more intense in the months ahead.Consumer expert Martin Lewis has said some people could “starve or freeze”, while food campaigner Jack Monroe also warned dire poverty could prove “fatal” in some cases.The former Assistant Chief to the Defence Staff has said the government must prepare the British public for a “long-term degradation” in living standards.General Jonathan Shaw told LBC: “We need to be psychologically preparing our people for a long-term degradation of standard of living and a long-term confrontation with Russia.” More

Rishi Sunak wrongly claimed his headline-grabbing move to axe VAT on home solar panels is only possible “thanks to Brexit”, experts say.The move, in the chancellor’s mini-budget – saving householders installing panels around £1,000 by removing the current 5 per cent rate – will also be allowed by the EU, they insist.The row follows the Brexit-supporting Mr Sunak arguing that a 2019 ruling by the European Court of Justice would have prevented him from acting within the bloc.“Thanks to Brexit, we’re no longer constrained by EU law,” he told cheering Tory MPs, adding: “We’ll abolish all the red tape imposed on us by the EU.”Jacob Rees-Mogg then backed up the claim, tweeting after Wednesday’s spring statement: “The EU would not allow us to do this, another benefit of Brexit.”But it has emerged that a directive, put forward by the European Council last December, is extending the current “exemption” from VAT for food, medicines and public transport.The new list includes the “supply and installation of solar panels on and adjacent to private dwellings, housing and public and other buildings used for activities in the public interest”, the document states.Steve Peers, a Brexit expert and law professor at the University of Essex, said of Mr Sunak’s comments: “This is untrue.“A recently agreed amendment to EU VAT law will give member states an option for a VAT exemption for the supply and installation of solar panels.”And the QC Jessica Simor, a specialist in EU law, said the directive will allow a VAT rate “as low as zero”, adding: “Parliament has agreed it. Council now has to rubber stamp it.”Ministers have repeatedly made questionable claims about changes being introduced in their search for the “Brexit dividend” that voters were promised.Mr Sunak has wrongly argued that tax-cutting freeports are only possible outside the EU, despite seven existing in the UK between the mid-1980s and 2012.And Boris Johnson claimed the UK was only able to steal a march with Covid vaccines outside the European Medicines Agency, although membership would not have prevented the UK acting alone.The Treasury has been asked to respond to the criticism that Mr Sunak misrepresented his new freedoms to act on green home energy improvements.In his speech, on Wednesday, the chancellor said: “If homeowners want to install energy saving materials, at the moment only some items qualify for a 5 per cent VAT relief – and there are complex rules about who is eligible.“The relief used to be more generous, but from 2019 the European Court of Justice required us to restrict its eligibility. But, thanks to Brexit, we’re no longer constrained by EU law.”Green campaigners welcomed the VAT removal, also making heat pumps and loft insulation cheaper, but there was no other help to cut insulation or green energy bills.Meanwhile, the mini-budget supported fossil fuels with a 5p cut in fuel duty and the chancellor failed even to mention the term “net zero” in his speech. More