Markus Andrews

More than half of UK voters think Boris Johnson’s government should ditch visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees to allow unlimited numbers to seek sanctuary here, a new poll for The Independent has found.Just one in five (21 per cent) said the government should stick to its requirement for visas for those fleeing Vladimir Putin’s invasion, compared to 54 per cent who said the policy should be dropped.Charities have warned that the visa process for the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which seeks to match refugees with British sponsors who have spare rooms, was proving much too “slow and bureaucratic”.Lawyers also said long delays getting visas under the family scheme meant some refugees were close to running out of money and becoming increasingly vulnerable to traffickers.The Savanta ComRes poll found that the government’s policy on refugees was souring public opinion on Mr Johnson’s response to the Ukraine war.Unlike EU nations which have opened their doors to Ukrainian refugees for up to three years, the UK is insisting on visas for all those taking part in schemes to come to Britain.The poll found strong support for Mr Johnson’s overall approach to the war, with 53 per cent of those asked saying he had done a good job, against 35 per cent who said he had not.But on the welcome the government has offered to Ukrainian refugees, the picture was reversed, with 47 per cent saying Mr Johnson had done a bad job; just 42 per cent said he had done well.Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said on Saturday that the government should be making it “far, far easier for those who are fleeing Ukraine to come here”.Speaking at a march in support of Ukraine, Mr Khan said: “You compare our government’s actions versus the actions of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, it’s embarrassing – we’ve got be doing much more.”A small number of successful “matchups” via the Homes for Ukraine scheme have emerged since Friday. But the levelling up department has yet to reveal how many refugees have been able to join sponsors in the UK. More

Plans to approve six new North Sea drilling sites will “blow” the UK’s net zero climate target and generate the equivalent of 420 million barrels of oil if they go ahead, new analysis has revealed.Six North Sea oil and gas field projects are expected to be given approval to begin drilling as part of a government drive to ease soaring energy costs in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.The six identified sites of Jackdaw, Marigold, Brodick, Rosebank, Catcher and Tolmount East can produce a total of around 421 million barrels of oil equivalent, according to new figures by the Uplift climate campaign group, based on Rystad Energy data.Uplift told The Independent that extracting and burning all the oil and gas from these six sites would produce a total 205 million tonnes of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of almost half the UK’s yearly total emissions.Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, said the expansion of fossil fuel production on that scale would destroy any chance the government has of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.“If the government fast-tracks these fields for drilling, it will blow the UK’s net zero climate targets,” she said.“The government is already off-track for meeting those targets, and yet it’s choosing to make the situation much worse by opening up new fossil fuel developments.”The Independent understands that the government will confirm its backing for a new round of North Sea exploration licences – which allow companies to bid for certain areas beyond the six fields – when its “energy security strategy” is set out in the coming days.Boris Johnson has said he wants to “remove barriers” to increased North Sea oil and gas production following the spike in energy prices and the desire to end reliance on Russian gas.The PM claimed that using Britain’s “hydrocarbon resources” would not undermine the net zero target – but opposition parties said the new focus on fossil fuels in the North Sea “flies in the face” of the 2050 commitment.Ministers are also keen to see the fast-tracking of final permits at six North Sea sites which already have licences, The Independent understands. However, approval of the sites first reported on last month lies with the regulator North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA).Extraction and consumption of oil and gas at the sites would produce a total 205 million tonnes of CO2 or equivalent emissions in the lifetime of the fields, Uplift has estimated. By comparison, the UK’s annual total greenhouse gas emissions is 405 million tonnes, according to the government.“There is almost no public gain from opening up these reserves – the vast majority of which is oil for export,” said Ms Khan. “The only winners are the oil and gas companies who have been whispering in the PM’s ear.”Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace, said that much of the oil and gas would be sold to countries overseas – but the emissions created by production alone would “make it harder” for the UK to reach net zero targets.“It undermines the UK’s attempt to provide leadership on net zero and keep us within 1.5C,” he said. “If we start to make an exception for the oil and gas industry, where does it end? There’s risk of the net zero commitment unravelling completely.”Over and above the six sites ready to be drilled, Treasury minister Simon Clarke has signalled the government’s backing for a new round of oil and gas exploration. “It’s our intention to unlock more production capacity in the North Sea,” he told the BBC’s Newsnight earlier this week.The NSTA has not be able to hold a licensing round since 2019. The government effectively put a moratorium on the process when it launched a review of whether current energy policies were compatible with climate goals.However, the Financial Times reported this week that the draft text for the “climate compatibility checkpoint” in the licensing process has been rewritten, and will allow the government to overlook climate concerns in the event of “urgent national security concerns”.Government plans to increase North Sea oil and gas production, says Simon ClarkeThe Liberal Democrats’ climate change spokesperson, Wera Hobhouse MP, said: “Fast-tracking fossil fuel extraction is plainly irresponsible and flies in the face of the government’s net zero commitments.”Ms Hobhouse added: “Every aspect of how we live needs to be sense-checked in light of the climate emergency, and that obviously includes new oil and gas exploration. The Conservative government are threatening our future.”Green MP Caroline Lucas said the renewed focus on North Sea fossil fuels showed Mr Johnson had merely been “showboating” at the Cop26 conference.“The prime minister claimed it was ‘one minute to midnight’ in our fight against climate change,” she told The Independent. “Now we know that all he said at that critical conference was nothing but global showboating.”Ms Lucas added: “New North Sea oil and gas would lock us into millions of tonnes of emissions to take us well beyond our net zero targets, whilst also making absolutely no difference to household energy bills.”Greenpeace and other groups have poured scorn on the idea that a new push for oil and gas will ease immediate supply woes – pointing out that it has taken as long as 28 years between initial exploration work and production in the North Sea.“The blind rush to boost oil and gas production … it’s not going to help with the current situation,” said Mr Parr. “The government may say it helps with energy security in the long-term. But in the long-term we need to eliminate fossil fuels.”However, energy industry chiefs have suggested that some exploratory sites could be ready to produce oil and gas relatively quickly.Andy Samuel, chief executive of the NSTA regulator, has said he believed the body would be able to resume with exploration licences “this year”. He also said that some sites have oil and gas discoveries which are “pretty much ready to go”.Mr Johnson has indicated he also wants to boost Britain’s supply of both renewables and nuclear energy as part of the forthcoming “energy security strategy” he promised to deliver this month.Business and energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng sparked a cabinet row after he revealed that the government was thinking about bringing the current moratorium on new onshore wind farms to an end.Mr Johnson has reportedly been warned by ministers of a mass rebellion among Tory MPs if he allows fresh onshore wind farm construction. One told The Times: “I don’t want it. My constituents don’t want it … The last thing we need is another revolt from Tory MPs.”A government spokesperson said: “As part of our upcoming energy supply strategy, we are considering various options on how we can supercharge our renewable and nuclear energy capacity while supporting our North Sea oil and gas industry.“No decisions have yet been made. There will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming decades while we transition to low-carbon energy.” More

Boris Johnson’s government must prepare the British public for a “long-term degradation” in living standards, the former Assistant Chief to the Defence Staff has warned.General Jonathan Shaw said the UK still had the “wrong mentality” about the scale of the geopolitical shift sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“We need to be psychologically preparing our people for a long-term degradation of standard of living and a long-term confrontation with Russia,” he told LBC.The ex-Armed Forces chief said Britain’s standard of living would get “much worse” because of the new cold war with Russia. “I don’t think we’re preparing our populations for that sort of hardship.”General Shaw said he did not hear enough in chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spring statement about the “pain” ahead.“We have all these grand plans about transiting to be free on dependence on wheat and oil from Russia – but getting is going to be extraordinarily painful”.He said: “We are obsessed with humanitarian concerns and individual suffering and that makes good TV – but the reality is this is far more serious than that.“For years we’ve placed top priority on economics … we do deals with all sorts of people. Our quality of life back home absolutely depends on them – cheap fuel, cheap access, doing deals with Saudi Arabia and things like that.”The former military chief added: “We’ve now decided that as far as Russia’s concerned we’re going to play geopolitics ahead of economics and that will come at a price. We need to be clear about that.”The warning comes as Mr Sunak was urged to rethink his offer to families struggling with the mounting cost of living crisis, following his spring statement.The chancellor has come in for heavy criticism for his failure to provide any extra help with energy bills – beyond the previously-announced £200 loan coming in October – and his decision not to raise benefits in line with inflation.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.Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is facing the prospect of further setbacks in Ukraine. He appeared to be preparing Russians for a possible scaling back of his ambitions away from seizing Kyiv to fighting for control of the east.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hailed his troops as having delivered “powerful blows” to the invading forces as he urged Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.An adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of defence, Markian Lubkivskyi, told the BBC he was sceptical that the Russian’s aims had truly changed away from trying to take the whole nation. But he said it does appear “the enemy is focused on the eastern part of Ukraine”. More

Britain’s first female foreign secretary Margaret Beckett has announced her intention to retire at the next general election, some 48 years after first becoming an MP.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed Dame Margaret, who was also the first woman to lead the party, as a “trailblazer” after she said she plans to stand down from the Derby South constituency.First elected in Lincoln in 1974, she served as acting leader of the Labour Party in 1994 after the sudden death of John Smith.That year she ran for election to lead the party full time, but lost to Tony Blair, who would later make her foreign secretary.Derby Labour Party announced that the 79-year-old politician would not seek re-election at the next national vote in 2024.In an interview, Dame Margaret discussed the sexism she faced in the Foreign Office as a holder of one of the great offices of state in the 1990s.“I regarded that as their problem rather than mine,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There were people in the Foreign Office I understand who thought that.While she temporarily led the party, Labour members have never elected a woman as their leader, unlike the Tories who have done so twice.“There’s so much luck in politics,” Dame Margaret said. “It was just never the right person at the right time.”Two MPs have been killed within the last six years, and the perceived threat to them and the abuse they face is all too extreme.Asked if she would advise children today to go into politics, Dame Margaret said: “It wouldn’t put me off because what I felt when I was considering being an MP is equally true today.“If you think things should be changed, and you want to have a say in changing them, and you don’t have wealth and power, there’s a very limited number of routes you can use and this is the biggest of them.”She acknowledged the huge challenge Sir Keir has if he is to win the next election after Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat, but said the public can “move mountains” in the British electoral system if they wish.Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “So many years of dedication to public service and to better politics. What a woman and what an inspiration Margaret is to us all.”Sir Keir paid tribute to the “legend” of the Labour party. “As the UK’s first female foreign secretary, and Labour’s first female leader, she is a trailblazer,” he said.“Margaret, I thank you for everything you’ve given, and achieved.” More

YouTube has pulled video clips of hoax calls with senior cabinet ministers targeted by Russian imposters in stunt blamed on the Kremlin by the British government.Defence secretary Ben Wallace and home secretary Priti Patel both featured in videos that have been trickling out on the Vovan222prank channel since Monday.On Friday the tech giant blocked the account which published the clips as part of its investigation into “influence operations linked to Russia” after days of pressure to block the clips.The ministers thought they were talking to Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal – but were in fact speaking to an imposter in what officials believe is a Russian disinformation campaign.The Google-owned firm did not find that the videos breached its “community guidelines”, but removed it following an investigation into whether it was running an influence campaign.A YouTube spokesman said: “We have terminated the YouTube channel Vovan222prank as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia.”The delay in removing the videos had enraged some in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which published a letter to YouTube calling for it to delete the “Russian propaganda”.On Wednesday, a defence source went as far as saying: “YouTube is in danger of aiding and abetting the Russian state propaganda machine, putting people at risk.”Downing Street accused the Kremlin of being behind the phoney calls from self-styled pranksters “Vovan and Lexus”.Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “The Russian state was responsible for the hoax telephone calls made to UK ministers last week.”The No 10 official added: “This is standard practice for Russian information operations and disinformation and is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there.” It emerged earlier this week that a third attempt was made to get through to a cabinet minister, this time targeting the culture secretary Nadine Dorries.It was thought the campaign was designed to embarrass ministers and sow divisions between allies supporting Ukraine in its resistance.Mr Wallace expressed his anger with British officials over a hoax call from an imposter claiming to be the Ukrainian prime minister.Armed Forces minister James Heappey said Mr Wallace was “pretty cross” and “can issue a good b******ing” following the apparent breach of security.Ms Patel said on Twitter: “Pathetic attempt at such difficult times to divide us. We stand with Ukraine.” More

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has said his plan to replace Labour’s Human Rights Act will would ensure the principle of free speech became a legal “trump card”.The justice secretary said his proposals would free speech and democratic debate from being “whittled away” by “wokery and political correctness”.The government’s plan to replace the landmark Human Rights Act with a new UK Bill of Rights – currently out for consultation – will better protect media freedom, Mr Raab claimed.The senior minister said free speech had to be given “different status in the pecking order of rights”.Mr Raab told the Daily Mail: “Effectively, free speech will be given what will amount to ‘trump card’ status in a whole range of areas.”He said: “The thrust is going to be making sure that when we balance rights, whether it’s the right to free speech and the right to privacy or other rights, we make sure that the greatest overriding importance and weight is attached to free speech.”Despite the promised changes, Mr Raab said checks would remain on free speech to prevent the incitement of violence or promotion of terrorism.“We will still be clamping down on those who try and use either media or free speech to incite violence, to radicalise terrorists, or to threaten children. All of those safeguards will be in place,” he said.Mr Raab said: “But we’ve got to be able to strengthen free speech, the liberty that guards all of our other freedoms, and stop it being whittled away surreptitiously, sometimes without us really being conscious of it.“I feel very strongly that the parameters of free speech and democratic debate are being whittled away, whether by the privacy issue or whether it’s wokery and political correctness.”He added: “So it will have a different status in the pecking order of rights and I think that will go a long way to protecting this country’s freedom of speech and our history, which has always very strongly protected freedom of speech.”Mr Raab also told the paper the UK Bill of Rights would make deportation mandatory for all foreign criminals jailed for at least a year.Meanwhile, The Telegraph reports that, as part of a wider reform of parole proceedings, Mr Raab is set to take back powers to override the Parole Board when it comes to the release of dangerous criminals from jail.It follows public outcry at the decision to release double child killer and rapist Colin Pitchfork from jail. More

Rishi Sunak kiboshed an attempt by Boris Johnson to use the spring statement to unveil measures aimed at lowering energy bills, the prime minister has reportedly told allies.Mr Johnson wanted to use this week’s fiscal announcement to set out a plan to limit the rise in gas and electricity costs for millions, according to unnamed “friends” quoted by The Daily Telegraph.Under the prime minister’s supposed energy plan, ministers would have guaranteed prices beyond October, when the next energy price cap is set. The proposal would have been universal, meaning all households would have benefited regardless of their financial situation.However the chancellor reportedly blocked the plan and it did not feature in Wednesday’s statement.The claims were denied by both No 10 and No 11 on Friday.A spokesman told the Telegraph: “We recognise the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, which is why we announced last month £9.1bn to support the majority of households with their energy bills.“The energy price cap continues to insulate millions from volatile global gas prices.” More

Grant Shapps was warned four months before P&O Ferries sacked 800 staff that the firm planned cost-cutting changes on its UK operations, it has emerged.Minutes from a meeting with its parent company DP World reveal the transport secretary knew “commercial decisions” were looming and asked to be kept “informed”.Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the company’s chairman, told him it was threatened by “a new low-cost competitor from Irish Ferries”, saying: “This poses challenges in respect of P&O’s operations.”In response, Mr Shapps said: “I’m aware of the issues relating to P&O. I recognise you will need to make commercial decisions, but please do keep us informed,” the minutes show.Immediately before the statement, the pair discussed what the transport secretary called the “exciting” decision to create a tax-cutting freeport at the London Gateway port run by DP World.Mr Shapps added “I appreciate everything you’ve done to support P&O. I see a tremendous future for ports in the UK.”The meeting has only been revealed after it was disclosed by P&O chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite, at the Commons committee hearing where he admitted knowingly breaking the law.There is also controversy over how much ministers were told the night before the firm provoked fury by making 786 workers redundant without notice, many over a Zoom call.The department for transport has insisted Mr Shapps was only told in general terms, in the meeting on 22 November, of the challenges P&O faced.But Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said: “Despite the clear warning signs, Grant Shapps didn’t appear to raise a single word of concern for the workforce when he had the chance.“Throughout this scandal, every window of opportunity to save jobs had been missed and hundreds of British workers are paying the price.”Mr Shapps has demanded the resignation of Mr Hebblethwaite for his “brazen and breathtaking” admission that he intentionally broke the law – and would do so again, in the same circumstances,He has also vowed to change the law to “undo” the mass sackings, saying the under-fire ferry firm had “exploited a loophole” that would now be closed off by legislation.“Next week, we’ll be returning to parliament with a package of measures to make sure that situation is undone,” he pledged on Thursday.However, a No 10 spokesman refused to guarantee that the overhaul would see P&O prosecuted – despite Boris Johnson making that promise in the Commons.Asked if the firm will end up in court, he replied: “All I can do is point to the changes that we will set out next week, which will ensure this can’t happen again.” More