Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has denied intervening to override security concerns about the peerage granted to Evgeny Lebedev.Labour has urged the prime minister to tell a powerful parliamentary committee everything he knows about the Russian-born peer’s elevation to the House of Lords.It follows a report in TheSunday Times which alleged that security services withdrew an assessment that granting a peerage posed a national security risk after the PM personally intervened.Rebutting the claim on Monday, Mr Johnson told reporters: “That is simply incorrect … It suits [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s agenda to try to characterise this as a struggle between the west and Russia.“It suits his agenda to say that the UK, that we in Nato countries, are anti-Russia, European countries are now anti-Russian.”He added: “It’s very, very, very important that we get the message over that we’re not anti-Russian, we’re not against Russians. Our quarrel is simply with the regime and the aggression of Vladimir Putin.”Mr Johnson said it would “obviously be extraordinary” if the security services had deemed Lord Lebedev to be a risk and the prime minister had intervened to ensure the peerage was granted, “but that’s not the case”.A government spokesman said: “All individuals nominated for a peerage are done so in recognition of their contribution to society and all peerages are vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.”Earlier on Monday, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly defended the peer’s place in the House of Lords.“He is here as a British dual national, he is a businessman, he has been an effective businessman,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Asked why the son of a former KGB agent had been granted a seat in parliament, Mr Cleverly said: “My father was a former chartered surveyor, but I’m not. So what your father did for work is, I’m not completely sure, totally relevant.”Lord Lebedev, a major shareholder in The Independent, has spoken once, and never voted, in the Lords. Mr Cleverly said: “There are lots of members of the House of Lords who are not active members of the House of Lords.“It rather flies in the face of this accusation that somehow he is distorting British politics if he is not voting on British laws.”Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has written to the prime minister asking him to “make available to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) the advice and information you were given about the ennobling of Evgeny Lebedev and full information about the role you played in the process”.Lord Lebedev told TheSunday Times that “all” of the allegations in its report were incorrect and the questions did not “merit an answer”.The peer has appealed to Mr Putin to stop the invasion of Ukraine in the Evening Standard newspaper.Lord Lebedev said: “I plead with you to use today’s negotiations to bring this terrible conflict in Ukraine to an end.” More

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is set to give an unprecedented virtual address to the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon.Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he had granted the request for Mr Zelensky to read a statement on the invasion by Russia in the chamber at 5pm.The leader, whose has won praise for his stirring messages to the Ukrainian people in military fatigues, will be beamed in on TV screens seen by MPs.Sir Lindsay said: “Every parliamentarian wants to hear directly from the president, who will be speaking to us live from Ukraine, so this is an important opportunity for the House.“Thanks again to our incredible staff for working at pace to make this historic address possible.”Formal parliamentary business will be suspended at the end of Tuesday afternoon while MPs watch Mr Zelensky on screens installed overnight above either side of the Commons chamber.More than 500 headsets will be made available to enable MPs to hear a simultaneous translation in English, but there will be no questions at the end of the address.The Ukrainian leader is said to be ready use his address to call for more arms to help defend his country and renew demands for the implementation of a Nato no-fly zone to stem the Russian attack.Mr Zelensky, who is reportedly at risk of assassination by pro-Russian groups in Kyiv, earlier called for called for a global boycott of all Russian products – including oil.“If the invasion continues … then we need a new sanctions package,” the embattled president said in a video address on Monday, including “a boycott of Russian exports, in particular, the rejection of oil and oil products from Russia”.On Monday Mr Johnson called for a “step-by-step” approach as European countries weaned themselves off Russian oil and gas. The PM said there would have to be a “transition period” away from Russian energy, but urged allies to accelerate the process.Dutch premier Mark Rutte warned that if countries moved too quickly to ban Russian oil and gas, it could backfire with “enormous consequences”.Mr Zelensky also spoke of the shelling of Ukrainian cities, describing the “terror” facing civilians as he appealed again on Monday for a no-fly zone over Ukraine or warplanes.“How do peaceful people in Kharkiv or Mykolaiv differ from (people in) Hamburg or Vienna?” he asked.UK ministers and other western leaders have warned that committing to a Nato no-zone fly would be tantamount to declaring war on Vladimir Putin’s forces. Meanwhile, an adviser to the Ukrainian president says a little progress has been made on safe corridors to allow civilians to flee some besieged Ukrainian cities during a third round of talks with Russia.Mykhailo Podolyak said without elaboration that “there were some small positive shifts regarding logistics of humanitarian corridors”. He said that consultations will continue on ways to negotiate an end to hostilities. More

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for the creation of a Nuremberg-style war crimes tribunal for the “crime of aggression” against Ukraine.The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already started investigating events in Ukraine, probing Vladimir Putin’s regime for potential genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.However, the ICC cannot investigate Russia for the crime of aggression because Moscow has not ratified the statute of the court, and would veto any attempt by the UN Security Council to submit a referral.Sir Keir urged Boris Johnson to get behind a special tribunal to prosecute Putin and his associates for the crime of aggression, based on the tribunal set up to prosecute Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg after World War II.“Vladimir Putin and his criminal cronies must be held to account for their illegal invasion of Ukraine,” said Sir Keir on Monday.The Labour leader added: “The UK government must do all it can to ensure the creation of a special tribunal to investigate the crime of aggression.“The Ukrainian people deserve justice as well as our continued military, economic, diplomatic, and humanitarian assistance.”It follows a call from Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who said a special international tribunal to prosecute a crime of aggression case would “fill a gap” in global efforts to bring the Putin regime to account.The crime of aggression – under which political leaders and military chiefs can be held individually responsible for an invasion – came into force at the ICC in 2018.The ICC cannot, at present, deal with crimes of aggression by states that have not ratified its statute.But legal campaigners have called for the UK and other countries to add to the pressure on Russia by pushing for a dedicated, special criminal tribunal to probe the crime of aggression.Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was grilled on the issue by senior Tory MP Tom Tugendhat on Monday. Asked if she was willing to push for a new international tribunal, given the ICC could not prosecute for crimes of aggression, Ms Truss replied: “I’m willing to look at it, yes.”ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced last week he had begun investigating war crimes after a referral from 39 countries.Mr Johnson and No 10 have explicitly accused Mr Putin of war crimes, with Downing Street claiming “horrific acts” were occurring on an almost hourly basis in Ukraine as civilian population centres are targeted.The prime minister told MPs: “What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin’s regime in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view, already fully qualifies as a war crime.”Meanwhile, the Labour leader said on Monday that Mr Johnson was still not “fit for office”, despite the Labour leader’s promise of political unity in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Speaking to reporters in London on Monday, Sir Keir said: “My position on the prime minister and what I think of him hasn’t changed, I don’t think he’s fit to be prime minister.“But at a time when we’re seeing these desperate scenes from Ukraine, my arguments today, my focus today, is on Ukraine.” More

Boris Johnson has announced an additional £175m in UK aid for Ukraine, bringing the total to almost £400m.Mr Johnson also said that in the coming days he will set out a new energy supply strategy to explain how the UK will ensure that consumers’ needs are met as prices sky-rocket due to sanctions on Russia and its vast oil and gas stocks.The announcements came after the prime minister held talks with counterparts Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and Justin Trudeau of Canada at 10 Downing Street.Mr Rutte cautioned that countries like Netherlands which rely heavily on Russian energy sources would need time gradually to reduce their dependence. The Dutch PM said: “It is a step by step process and we have to make sure we deleverage our dependency on Russian gas and Russian oil, whilst acknowledging that at the moment the dependency, at least to a certain extent, is still there.“If you force companies to quit doing business with Russia in that realm, that would have enormous consequences because it would basically undermine supply chains the world over, particularly in Europe, and it would also have an impact on Ukraine itself. “And therefore, my plea is that we do this diligently and not overnight, making sure that we speed up the programmes all of our countries to decarbonize – to green our economies.”Mr Johnson agreed that the process would have to be taken “step by step” but said that it needed to be accelerated.The PM also said that Britain will join the Netherlands and Canada in an international Ukraine support group to co-ordinate the efforts of the global community to provide long-term assistance, and urged other countries to sign up.Speaking at a press conference alongside Rutte and Trudeau in Downing Street, Mr Johnson said: “After 12 days, it’s already clear that Putin has made a miscalculation.“He has under-estimated Ukrainians’ resistance, he has underestimated their leader and he has underestimated the unity of the West. “And we will continue as colleagues to do everything we can to strengthen that unity in the days ahead to ensure that Putin fails in this catastrophic invasion of Ukraine.”Mr Johnson said the three countries “stand shoulder to shoulder against Russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine”.“In the 12 days since Russia launched this illegal and brutal assault, the world has come together in solidarity with the indomitable people of Ukraine,” he added.Mr Johnson said it was clear that the friends of Ukraine would have to do more, as Vladimir Putin showed no sign of backing down.“What’s happening now is that Putin is doubling down,” said the British PM. “He’s decided that he’s going to continue with an all-out onslaught on centres of habitation in a way that we think is utterly repugnant. “It’s clear that we’re going to have to do more And as best friends and partners that’s what we’re going to do.” More

A Conservative MP has individually written to every government department urging them to scrap all their internal Covid-19 precautions. Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley, sent at least 15 letters to ministers across Whitehall at the end of February.In each identical written message he urged the “department and its agencies remove all internal Covid-19 related policies, restrictions and mask mandates”.Departments Mr Davies wants to drop all coronavirus precautions include Education, Health, and the Ministry of Defence – his demands include scrapping mitigations in departmental agencies like Jobcentres.Mr Davies is a longstanding opponent of certain measures to contain Covid. In December he described mask-wearing as “one of the worst examples of the suffocation of our basic freedoms”.His latest push comes despite virtually all Covid-related legals requirements on individuals being scrapped by the government , including the requirement to self-isolate when infectious.Not all departments have yet written back to Mr Davies, but none have so far agreed to his approach. “The Government’s Working Safely guidance, which was revised on 24 February 2022, continues to require organisations to carry out a risk assessment which includes the risk from COVID-19,” said health minister Edward Argar, responding for the Department of Health and Social Care.”It also sets out additional actions organisations can take to protect employees in the workplace, such as ensuring adequate ventilation, frequent cleaning, asking people to wash their hands frequently and asking people with COVID-19 to stay away. “The guidance advises that people continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed settings where they come into contact with people they do not normally meet, when rates of transmission are high. Civil Service employers will continue to follow this guidance and align their policies accordingly.”In another typical response, transport minister Andrew Stephenson said his department would continue “ensuring adequate ventilation, frequent cleaning, asking people to wash their hands frequently and asking people with COVID-19 to stay away” – in line with government guidance. Layla Moran, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus, told The Independent: “At a time of international crisis we should not be wasting time and energy trying to stop civil servants from wearing masks.“Learning to live with Covid must not mean living as if Covid does not exist and certainly it does not mean prematurely removing basic mitigation measures, particularly as we learn more about the debilitating impacts of Long Covid.” More

Boris Johnson’s government is “not doing anywhere near enough” to help refugees fleeing the “horror” of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.The SNP leader challenged UK ministers to make it easier for refugees to come to the UK, after it was revealed that only “around 50” visas had been issued.Ms Sturgeon said it was “unconscionable” that those who have made difficult journeys to escape the fighting and shelling had to “jump through bureaucratic hoops” and apply for a visa before they can enter the UK.As rising numbers of Ukrainians look to leave their country in the wake of the Russian invasion, the first minister insisted: “All countries must step up and fully play their part, and the UK is not yet doing so.”Her comments came in the wake of France urging Britain to do more to help Ukrainian refugees trying to come to the UK from Calais.French interior minister Gerald Darmanin on Sunday said it was “inhumane” of the UK to turn away refugees arriving at the French port city if they did not have a valid visa.However, speaking on Monday, Ms Sturgeon insisted that “on the issue of refugees the UK is not doing anywhere near enough”. More

Dominic Raab dismisses fears that Putin will use nuclear weapons as ‘rhetoric’A former foreign office minister has said the UK risks falling into “dystopian economic collapse” should it move to sanction Russian gas.It comes as Britain may move this week to ratchet up sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas industries – as reported by The Independent last week – as part of efforts to isolate Putin’s regime globally.Sir Alan Duncan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There is this auction of indignation, which all of us totally understand, against anything to do with Russia.“So they ban this, ban that and ban everything, but in the end, we’re going to end up banning our own supplies.“Now, we of course, want to disadvantage Russia as an essential tool of war. But we don’t want to disadvantage ourselves so that we fall into some kind of dystopian economic collapse. We are on the edge of that.“Now, for instance, there are subsidiary companies of Gazprom, which are not sanctioned, which are not incorporated in Russia, which are incorporated in one case in the UK, which are essential to the smooth flowing of gas.”Show latest update

1646664820Watch: Watch live as Boris Johnson speaks about Ukraine-Russia war with Canada and Netherlands leadersWe are live with Boris Johnson speaks about Ukraine-Russia war with Canada and Netherlands leaders.Watch live as Boris Johnson speaks about Ukraine-Russia war with Canada and Netherlands leadersEmily Atkinson7 March 2022 14:531646664675Putin did not take Nato’s threats of deterrence ‘seriously enough’, says TrussForeign secretary Liz Truss has said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows that Nato needs to spend more on defence and improve the way the alliance works.She told MPs: “There’s no doubt that the West didn’t act early enough or decisively enough.“The reality is President Putin did not take the threats of deterrence seriously enough.”She told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee: “What we have to do now is we have to strengthen Nato, we particularly have to strengthen the eastern flank. More

Ireland is expecting to take in around 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, a minister in the country’s government has said.Speaking after a meeting with the World Health Organisation Anne Rabbitte said Ireland would likely take around two per cent of Ukraine’s expected five million displaced people.That figure could get “very real very quickly”, she said, as new figures show 1,800 people have already arrived from the country.The reception from Ireland, whose population is around five million, contrasts with that of its larger neighbour Britain, which has granted just 50 emergency visas to Ukrainians since the Russian invasion of their country.The UK stands practically alone in Europe in not operating an open door policy for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict – requiring people to have a visa and granting only limited concessions. France’s interior minister Gérald Darmanin accused the British government of a “lack of humanity” on the issue over the weekend as hundreds of Ukrainians gathered at Calais wanting to reach Britain.Ms Rabbitte, a health minister in Ireland’s government from the Fianna Fáil party, met with senior World Health Organisation officials this week.Following the meeting the Irish Times reported her saying: “At that stage over a million had crossed the border. He said he could see multiples of that crossing over. “He went as far as to say he could see 4.5 million to 5 million or more crossing the border.” She noted that Ireland expecting to take around two per cent of that figure.”It is my understanding 671 people have arrived into Ireland from Ukraine but they have gone straight to family already living here,” the minister added. “After that we are looking at finding accommodation for them. So that two per cent is likely to get very real, very quickly.”The latest figures released on Monday show 1,800 people from Ukraine have arrived in Ireland visa-free.Meanwhile the Irish Independent cited Irish government sources who described the 100,000 figure used by the minister as “speculation” – but suggested 80,000 was on the cards.”We are at the edge of Europe, and there are only 5,000-6,000 Ukrainians living here now — many in the meat industry in the midlands,” the quoted source told the newspaper.“Other analysis says [the total number of refugees] could be less than 80,000. Whatever the numbers, ­Ireland will do its part.”The British government has hinted that it could make the process for Ukrainians to come to Britain easier, but has not laid out any specific policies.The whole European Union has meanwhile already agreed to grant temporary residency to Ukrainians and give them access to work, the welfare state, and housing for and initial period of three years. More