Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has urged China’s president to join world efforts to ensure “Putin fails”, in the first conversation between the two leaders about the Ukraine crisis.The prime minister spoke with Xi Jinping for 50 minutes, as part of Western efforts to heap pressure on Beijing to toughen up its stance on the month-long war Russia launched.China’s position has been described as neutral by some observers – but Vladimir Putin’s key ally has failed to criticise the war and is believed to have been asked, privately, to help Russia.In a terse readout, a No 10 spokesman said only that they had discussed “a range of issues of mutual interest”, including the situation in Ukraine.“It was a frank and candid conversation lasting almost an hour. They agreed to speak again soon,” the spokesman said.A government source told The Independent the call had been an attempt by Mr Johnson to “put pressure on the Putin regime to withdraw troops”.“Of course, he would have set out that we have called on all world leaders. in all countries. to do everything they can to ensure what happens in Ukraine can’t continue and that Putin fails in what he’s trying to do,” the source said.However, it is understood that the issue of possibly extending sanctions to China – if it agrees to help Russia’s war effort – was not discussed.The US has raised fears that Beijing will provide Moscow with economic and financial support and is also contemplating sending military supplies such as armed drones.Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the UK trade secretary, appeared to say London would follow Washington in imposing sanctions if that happened, although No 10 distanced itself from the comment.Suspicions were raised that China had advance warning of the invasion after it began one day after the end of the Beijing Winter Olympics – and after a visit by the Russian president.A joint statement from Putin and Mr Xi said the bonds between the two countries had “no limits” and there were “no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation”.However, when China abstained from voting on a UN security council resolution which would have condemned the invasion – rather than use its veto – the West saw that as a positive sign.China has expressed support for both Russia’s “security concerns” and Ukraine’s sovereignty – as it seeks to build trade ties with the invaded country.Joe Biden, when he spoke to Mr Xi last week, said he had pointed out that US and other foreign corporations were already pulling out of Russia because of President Putin’s “barbaric” behaviour.“I made no threats, but I made sure he understood the consequences of him helping Russia,” the US president told a news conference on Thursday in Brussels.“I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia.” More

The High Court has ruled home secretary Priti Patel’s secret policy of confiscating asylum seekers’ mobile phones as unlawful.The Home Office has had a secret blanket policy of seizing phones belonging to asylum seekers who had arrived in the UK via clandestine routes, such as in small boats. The phones’ data was then extracted.Three asylum seekers – known only as HM, KA, and MH – one of whom has been recognised as a potential victim of trafficking, filed a judicial review of Ms Patel’s policy at the High Court.All three had their phones seized between April and September 2020, without them being able to tell their families they had arrived in the UK or having enough time to note down important phone numbers.Officials had threatened them with criminal penalties unless they provided the codes to unlock their phones, lawyers for the claimaints said.The data stored in their phones was later extracted. Their lawyers claim that thousands of others arriving to the UK in small boats had their phones confiscated, and hundreds of others had their data cloned.The phones of the three claimaints were only returned months later after the legal action had started, the lawyers said.The asylum seekers were unable to contact their families to say that they were safe, and neither did they have time to note down their important numbers, they added.But the court has ruled that the policy was unlawful and breached human rights and data protection laws.Privacy International, a leading human rights NGO, intervened in the case. It said that Ms Patel had denied the existence of the phone policy but admitted to the confiscation of phones, and cloning of data still retained by the Home Office.It has also been revealed that Ms Patel has self-referred herself to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for breaching data protection law. But she decided not to inform the many hundreds of asylum seekers that were affected by the breach.The home secretary that immigration officials had the right – under section 48 of the Immigration Act 2016 – to search the arrivals by small boat, take their phones, and extract data from the devices.But the High Court ruled that the law could not be used to carry out personal searches and, as a result, the searches of the claimants and the subsequent seizures of their phones was unlawful for this reason too.The policy also infringed their right to family and private life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), the court ruled.The Home Office’s demand for the phones’ unlocking codes under the threat of criminal penalties was also found to be unlawful and in breach of human rights.Clare Jennings of Gold Jennings – a solicitor firm that represented claimant HM – said: “Such systematic extraction of personal data from vulnerable asylum seekers, who were not suspects in any crime, was an astonishing and unparalleled assault on fundamental privacy rights. “Today’s judgment provided much needed clarification as to the extent of immigration officers powers of search and seizure and confirmed beyond doubt that the home secretary’s policy of seizing all mobile phones from small boat arrivals was unlawful.”Daniel Carey of Deighton Pierce Glynn – the solicitors that represented KH and MA – said: “All of this had real impacts on very vulnerable people, who lost touch with their families and couldn’t get their asylum documentation, while the phones languished on a shelf for many months, many which now cannot be returned. “I am pleased that today’s judgment vindicates our clients and all those affected. It is another example of how the Home Office’s hostile environment policy disregards basic human rights and dignity.”Lucie Audibert of Privacy International said: “It’s quite clear that the Home Office considered that asylum seekers arriving on UK shores did not have the same privacy rights as other people – it unashamedly granted itself unlawful powers to systematically seize and search their phones, even when they weren’t suspected of any crime. “This is in line with this government’s (and many others’) efforts to criminalise migration and rob migrants of their basic human rights. We welcome today’s judgment and hope the claimants will obtain due redress for these unacceptable violations of their rights.” More

Hundreds of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo protested Friday to pressure the government into allowing them to vote in neighboring Serbia’s April 3 general election.Demonstrators gathered in Mitrovica, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Pristina, with banners reading “We want our human rights” and “Kurti won’t drive us away from Kosovo,” and marched to a bridge that divides the city. Most of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb population lives north of Mitrovica, close to Serbia’s border.Hundreds of people also protested in Gracanica, a commune located 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Kosovo’s capital where ethnic Serbs residents are concentrated.Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said Kosovo and Serbia need to have a preliminary agreement on holding the election to permit the voting.In a letter to the European Union office in Pristina, Kurti wrote that “Serbia’s illegal structures are trying to hold an election in our territory as if our government did not exist,” the Kosovapress news agency reported. In previous Serbian elections, ethnic Serbs in Kosovo voted there under monitoring by international observers. That did not happen when Serbia held a referendum earlier this year.The United States, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. expressed “concern at the risk of escalation or violence” Friday and urged demonstrators to protest peacefully. They also called on Kosovo and Serbia “to act with restraint and refrain from any rhetoric or action that could increase tensions.” On Wednesday, the U.S. and the four European countries – collectively known as the Quint – criticized Kosovo’s rejection of what they called their “constructive proposal” for allowing the Balkan nation’s ethnic Serb minority to vote in Serbia’s election. They did not say what the rejected proposal entailed.A bloody 1998-1999 bloody conflict between Serbia and Albanian separatists in Kosovo, then a Serbian province, left more than 12,000 people dead and about 1,600 still missing. NATO’s intervention in the form of a bombing campaign on Serbia ended the war. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognized by the United States and most EU nations. Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo as separate nation after 11 years of EU-brokered negotiations. More

No 10 has backed calls for the chief executive of P&O Ferries to quit his post, but refused to guarantee the company would be prosecuted under planned changes to the law.It comes after Peter Hebblethwaite admitted the company broke employment law by failing to consult with the unions before the mass sacking of 800 workers over a Zoom call last week.In an extraordinary committee session in Parliament on Thursday, the chief executive also told MPs he would “make this decision again” when asked if he would change anything in hindsight.Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said the admission about breaking the law was “brazen and breathtaking, and showed incredible arrogance”, as he called on Mr Hebblethwaite to quit.“I cannot believe that he can stay in that role having admitted to deliberately go out and use a loophole — well, break the law, but also use a loophole,” the cabinet minister told Sky News.Mr Shapps insisted he would announce a “package of measures” in the Commons next week, “which will both close every possible loophole that exists and force them to U-turn on this”.Asked if the prime minister supported Mr Shapps’s call for the P&O chief executive to quit, a No 10 spokesperson told reporters on Friday: “Yes”.The spokesman, however, refused to guarantee that the planned law changes would see P&O prosecuted — despite Mr Johnson making that promise in the Commons.On Wednesday, the prime minister told MPs: “We will therefore be taking action. If the company is found guilty, it will face fines running into millions of pounds.“We will take them to court, we will defend the rights of British workers.”The spokesman said changes would be made to maritime law, to employment law and to ensure minimum wage legislation is complied with, with the details to be published next week.But he declined to confirm P&O will end up in court, saying: “All I can do is point to the changes that we will set out next week, which will ensure this can’t happen again.”After Mr Hebblethwaite’s appearance on Thursday, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Frances O’Grady, stressed: “Ministers can’t wash their hands of responsibility. Employment law in the UK is too weak.“Ministers must immediately take steps to prosecute the company and its directors, and to suspend DP World’s lucrative freeports and other public contracts until the workers are reinstated. “And they must bring forward the long-promised employment bill so other companies don’t follow P&O’s appalling example.”But despite calls from unions to designate P&O Ferries with “pariah status” and terminate its government shipping and freeport contracts until workers are reinstate, Mr Shapps added on Friday that he “can’t directly” revoke P&O’s licence, when asked why the company is still operating after breaking the law. More

Thousands of disabled pupils and those with special needs could have their school transport taken away because of the spiralling cost of fuel, council chiefs are warning.Coach and minibus companies and taxi firms are demanding higher fees to cover their higher petrol and diesel bills.In some cases, transport providers are demanding an extra 20 per cent when their contracts are up for renewal.But county councils, which coordinate the services, say the budgets of hard-pressed local authorities, which have already been set for the coming year, will not extend any further.Without extra funding, the councils may be forced to cut other services or cancel the transport, they say.The chancellor’s 5p cut in fuel duty is unlikely to make much difference because the Ukraine war, wider fears over energy supplies and inflation have all pushed up prices at the pumps.In a survey for the County Councils Network, almost two-thirds of councils said their expenditure on school transport for disabled and special needs pupils was “unsustainable”, and 34 per cent said it was “difficult”.Even before fuel prices started soaring, these costs increased from £175m in 2016 to £244m last year.At least 51,550 disabled and special needs pupils need free school transport – up from 41,185  in 2016-17, according to data from nearly 30 county authorities.The network said some transport providers were activating “break” clauses in their contracts, giving councils 28 days’ notice of handing back routes.“The local authority then has to retender for the route, but new bids are coming back at up to 20 per cent more because of the fuel crisis,” a spokesman said.“So those councils will either be left having to pay more – or seeing loads of young people not have access to school transport.”A report by the network also found that councils have had to cut back on eligibility for mainstream free school transport, with almost 20,000 fewer pupils qualifying than five years earlier.Many special educational needs and disabilities pupils require coach and minibuses or taxis – transport offered by the very companies that are worst hit by record fuel hikes, the organisation says.Keith Glazier, children’s services spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said: “Free school transport is a lifeline for many pupils, but local authorities have been placed in a difficult position owing fuel prices reaching record highs.“Transport providers are understandably concerned they are paying much more than a year ago, but it means councils either pay the higher rates they are requesting or potentially see thousands of pupils unable to access free school transport, which is a statutory responsibility for local authorities.“With our budgets set for the coming year, there is little wriggle room for local authorities, except to reduce other vital services.”The report calls for more government support.County authorities across England spent a total of £555.6m on free school transport last year, up from £472.6m in 2016-17. The increase is largely down to a 33 per cent rise in expenditure for disabled and special needs pupils, figures show.Over the past three years, the average cost of transport per pupil has risen by £206 to £6,099 a year, due to rising costs, such as fuel.All children under eight qualify for free transport if their school is more than two miles away, and over-eights qualify if their school is more than three miles away.The Independent has asked the government to respond. More

Boris Johnson has said Ukraine could win the war against Russia after the advance of Vladimir Putin’s troops stalled in recent days.In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight programme aired on Thursday night, he said: “I think Ukraine can certainly win. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, I think that the situation for the Ukrainians is grim, miserable.”The Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine has not gone the way Mr Putin expected, with Russian troops quickly becoming bogged down in the suburbs around Kyiv and in other parts of the country.A month on from the first attacks, Russia has failed to capture a single major Ukrainian city. Ukrainian troops have fought back fiercely, and Russia has failed to win full control of the skies, helped in large part by supplies of weapons from Nato countries. Western officials say Russian troops have been hampered by supply shortages, including food and fuel, and troops fighting in freezing temperatures still lack proper cold weather gear. More

Rishi Sunak is facing a backlash from Conservative MPs after warnings that his mini-Budget will drive 1.3m people – including 500,000 children – below the poverty line this year.Analysis of the chancellor’s spring statement by the Resolution Foundation think tank found that Mr Sunak’s refusal to upgrade welfare benefits to keep pace with soaring inflation will leave low and middle-income households “painfully exposed”.And the chancellor was branded an “illusionist” by the Institute for Fiscal Studies after it emerged that seven out of eight workers can expect to pay more tax in 2024-25, despite Mr Sunak’s claim that his spring statement had delivered the biggest tax cuts in 25 years.Mr Sunak faced ridicule on social media after borrowing a supermarket worker’s car for a photoshoot showing him filling the tank to publicise his 5p cut in fuel duty, and then struggling to use a contactless card to pay for it – with his own money. He also got in a tangle after telling a TV interviewer that his family had “a whole range of breads” at home, when asked how much he would spend on a loaf.Prime minister Boris Johnson appeared to admit that Wednesday’s statement had failed to match the challenge facing Britons in what the Office for Budget Responsibility said will be the worst year for living standards since records began in 1956.The PM said that the outlook for British families “will continue to be tough, it will continue to be choppy”, but promised the government would “look after people” through the cost of living crisis. And added: “We need to do more.”Mr Sunak’s £330 cut in national insurance contributions (NICs), achieved by raising the threshold for the tax to £12,570, was welcomed by Tory MPs.But several said he should have gone further to help the poorest in society – many of whom do not earn enough to pay NICs and will not benefit from the 5p cut in fuel duties as they do not drive.Waveney MP Peter Aldous – who rebelled against Mr Sunak’s decision to slash £20 a week from universal credit as Covid support wound down – said the chancellor’s package offered “negligible” help for the most vulnerable, whose livelihoods will be “imperilled by the declining real value of welfare benefits”.Former work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb also said Mr Sunak cannot wait until his autumn Budget to provide more help for the poorest.“There is certainly more to do when it comes to supporting those on the very lowest incomes,” said Mr Crabb. “I don’t think waiting until the autumn budget for further action is sustainable.”Meanwhile, South Dorset MP Richard Drax said that the chancellor’s “tinkering” did not go far enough, warning that the 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax promised in 2024 would “come too late” for deprived areas of his constituency.Treasury minister Simon Clarke told the House of Commons that benefit claimants will have to wait until next year to see payments catch up with spiralling inflation.April’s 3.1 per cent upgrade was calculated on the basis of inflation rates last September, which were well below the current 5.5 per cent or the 8.7 per cent peak they are expected to reach later this year. Mr Clarke told MPs that if inflation remains high in September, that will be reflected in the uprating coming into effect in April 2023.Resolution Foundation chief executive Torsten Bell said that poverty will rise more sharply this year than at any time outside a recession, with about 1.3 million Britons expected to be pushed into absolute poverty by the cost-of-living squeeze and the tax hikes due in April.The typical working family is set to lose 4 per cent of their income – an average of £1,100 – over the financial year, while the poorest quarter of households will see 6 per cent of their earnings wiped out by rising costs and taxes.“The decision not to target support at those hardest hit by rising prices will leave low- and middle-income households painfully exposed,” said Mr Bell.The foundation’s projections suggest that the 2019-24 parliament will be the worst on record for plummeting living standards, with household incomes set to fall by 2 per cent up to 2025 – double the decline seen during the financial crisis.In the face of such a crisis, Mr Sunak’s policies “do not measure up to the rhetoric”, Mr Bell said.The director of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, Paul Johnson, said that Mr Sunak’s £6bn cut in NICs, coupled with an earlier £9bn package of help with energy bills, “is not enough to offset the fall in real earnings that we expect to see”.An average earner on £27,500 a year will be about £360 worse off in the next financial year, while someone earning around £40,000 will be almost £800 worse off, he said.Meanwhile, the failure to upgrade departmental spending in areas like health and education to reflect the expected surge in inflation to almost 9 per cent later this year will effectively mean “hefty real pay cuts across the public sector”.The IFS chief said that tax cuts announced by the chancellor on Wednesday were more than wiped out by the “magic” of fiscal drag, as the four-year freeze on income tax thresholds he announced last year pulls millions of workers into higher rates of taxation.Spiralling inflation means that the freeze – which was expected to deliver a relatively modest increase in tax receipts when first announced at a time of slowly rising prices – will deliver extra revenues of twice the value of the £5bn cut in the basic rate.Predicting a rise in the overall tax take to levels last seen in the late 1940s, the IFS’s Mr Johnson said: “Mr Sunak’s statement contained big new tax cuts. But it also allowed taxes to rise. He can now expect to raise more in tax as a share of national income by 2025 than he expected last October.“In fact, taxes are set to rise to their highest level as a fraction of national income since Clement Attlee was prime minister.”Mr Sunak also came under fire from a former head of the navy for failing to increase defence spending at a time of global tension over Russia.Lord West of Spithead told the House of Lords: “We are closer to a world war than at any stage during the last 60 years.“With that backdrop, which is terrifying and horrifying, I was appalled that in the spring statement there was no mention of extra money for defence.”Mr Sunak defended his measures, but admitted he could not shelter everyone from the stormy financial weather ahead, with domestic energy bills due to jump by £600 in April and a similar sum in October.“I wish I could make sure that we protect everyone against all aspects of that, but it’s impossible for anyone in my job to do that,” said the chancellor.“What we can do is make a difference where we can.”  More

The law will be changed to “undo” P&O’s mass sacking of its workers, the government is vowing – just hours after a minister warned that would harm the economy.Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said the under-fire ferry firm had “exploited a loophole” that would now be closed off by legislation and applied retrospectively.“Next week, we’ll be returning to parliament with a package of measures to make sure that situation is undone,” he pledged.The announcement comes after a government official admitted it had “no powers” to take P&O Ferries to court – despite the firm admitting it broke the law by sacking 800 workers without consulting them.The business minister, Paul Scully, urged MPs to recognise the “wider” benefits of the “flexible labour market” that allowed the sackings to take place without punishment.But, just two hours later, Mr Shapps switched tack, promising: “We’ll have a package of measures that we’re going to bring forward, which will absolutely close it off.”The stakes have been raised by Boris Johnson insisting the controversy will go to court and telling MPs: “P&O clearly aren’t going to get away with it.”At an emergency session of the business and transport committees, P&O’s chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite had vowed that the company would do exactly that.He admitted it “chose to break the law”, arguing a consultation with trade unions would have been pointless because they would never have agreed to sacking 800 workers.“I completely throw our hands up, my hands up, that we did choose not to consult. We did not believe there was any other way to do this, to compensate people in full,” he said.Mr Hebblethwaite also admitted most of the newly recruited seafarers were being paid just £5.15 per hour – way below the UK’s national minimum wage.He told MPs his own a basic salary was £325,000. He faced robust questioning at the session, which began with Labour MP Darren Jones asking: “Are you in this mess because you don’t know what you’re doing, or are you just a shameless criminal?”“The context of this very difficult decision is that P&O has lost an unsustainable amount of money,” Mr Hebblethwaite replied. “The reality is, we would’ve had to close the business. We concluded that every single option available to us would result in the closure of P&O.”Mr Scully said the Insolvency Service is looking into whether other notification laws were broken by P&O – but it told the inquiry that work would not be completed until 8 April.Furthermore, a leading maritime lawyer has argued the firm could legally sack 800 staff without informing the government, because of a law change brought in by Chris Grayling.Mr Shapps insisted the sackings can be reversed, saying: “We will change the law to make that happen.”He said: “We think that the P&O management have exploited a loophole here, in order to sack British workers and bring in some very low paid international workers – we don’t think that’s right.” More