Markus Andrews

The government is to launch a study of the economic benefits of reintroducing imperial units of measurement, to quantify a supposed advantage of Brexit.Ministers provoked mockery from opposition politicians with the “ludicrous” move, which will be overseen by the business department this year.In 2019, Boris Johnson pledged to usher in a new “era of generosity and tolerance towards traditional measurements” and suggested that measuring in pounds and ounces was “ancient liberty”.This month he appointed Jacob Rees-Mogg as “minister for Brexit opportunities” in order to examine how Britain can benefit from leaving the EU.Imperial-only labelling fell out of business use when Britain joined the European common market in the early 1970s, but some people who remember the esoteric counting system remain attached to it.Imperial’s alternative system of measuring weights and volume of products was used more or less exclusively in Britain – though the US maintains a parallel system with similar names but different measurements.As opposed to the metric system of weight, in which 1,000 grams are equivalent to one kilogram, the imperial system says there are 14 pounds in a stone and 16 ounces in a pound.For liquid, there are 20 fluid ounces in a pint and 160 fluid ounces in a gallon, instead of metric’s 1,000 millilitres in a litre.While the measurements have largely been out of use for some 60 years, they are believed by politicians to be beloved of some older voters, and so occasionally become a political issue. In reality, Britain operates a mixed system, with businesses using metric weights and measures, while imperial miles are used on roadsigns and pints used in pubs.Paul Scully, a Tory business minister, said reintroducing imperial labelling would be “an important step in taking back control” and that a planned “assessment of the economic impact on business will be carried out in due course”.But the Liberal Democrat business spokesperson Sarah Olney accused the government of “wasting taxpayer money” and said there were more important things to worry about.“The fact the government is undertaking a study into this shows just how out of touch they are,” she told The Independent.“It’s ludicrous that they think this will help businesses after they hit them with a national insurance rise and have done nothing to help with their soaring energy bills.“Ministers must explain how reverting to a system not used in nearly 60 years will help businesses attract new customers, and how imperial units will be of any help to companies looking to trade with the rest of the world – when the vast majority of countries use the metric system.“Instead of wasting taxpayer money on looking to bring back imperial measurements, the government should be focusing on the real issues affecting businesses, like the miles of queues at our ports and the reams of red tape thrown up by Boris Johnson’s shambolic EU trade deal.”Mr Scully said: “We are reviewing the EU ban on the use of imperial units for markings so that businesses have more choice over the measures they use.“This is an important step in taking back control of our national rules, and we will consult to ensure that we have the best evidence available on which to make changes. “An assessment of the economic impact on businesses will be carried out in due course.” More

UK’s prime minister has announced that it will hit five Russian banks and three wealthy individuals with sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine.The move is part of Britain’s “first barrage” of punitive measures ahead of a feared full-scale invasion by Moscow.Boris Johnson told the Commons on Tuesday that immediate sanctions would be deployed against the Russian banks Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank, as well as three “very high net wealth individuals”.But who exactly are the targets? Here’s what you need to know:PromsvyazbankThe bank was founded by brothers Dmitry and Alexei Ananyev but was seized by Russian authorities in 2017 and the brothers were accused of fraud.Interpol later found that found the prosecution of the brothers was politically motivated.According to UK Government sources, Promsvyazbank now services 70% of state contracts signed by Russia’s defence ministry and is a “pivotal bank” for the country’s military-industrial complex.In the early 2010s, the bank briefly flirted with listing on the London Stock Exchange.Bank RossiyaTracing its roots back to the early 1990s before the USSR fell, Rossiya Bank is favoured by the wealthy and powerful, according to Government sources.One of the top 20 banks in the country, it has been blacklisted for years and was put on US sanctions lists after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.The move forced the bank to draw back into Russia and according to the Moscow Times it became the first big bank to start opening branches in Crimea.According to the US Treasury, which sanctioned the bank in 2014, it is “the personal bank for senior officials of the Russian Federation” including Putin’s inner circle.It has supported the integration of Crimea into Russia, the UK Government said and “offers support to military activities and the formation of major transport links and cards that allow the public to travel easily around the peninsula”.IS BankThe bank has nine branches in Russia according to its website, but its “business development is directly tied to the annexation of Crimea”, according to the UK Government.It was designated by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, which runs the country’s sanctions, in 2017 for “operating in Crimea”.Black Sea Bank for Development and ReconstructionAdded to the same US sanctions list in 2017 that IS Bank was on, the Black Sea Bank also operates in Crimea.It was “created immediately after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014” and has “consolidated Crimea into the Russian Federation through the financial system”, according to the UK GovernmentAccording to its website, its biggest markets are Russia and Turkey and it also does a lot of business in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.General BankLike IS Bank and Black Sea Bank, General Bank, or Genbank, was sanctioned by the US years ago for its involvement in Crimea.“Targeting these entities for operating in the Crimea region of Ukraine underscores the United States’ commitment to opposing Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea,” the US said at the time.It is the biggest of the three small banks sanctioned by the UK on Tuesday, the 92nd largest in Russia, Reuters reported, citing data from financial marketplace Banki.ru.Gennady TimchenkoRussia’s sixth richest man according to Government sources, Forbes lists Mr Timchenko’s net worth as 23.9 billion dollars (£17.6 billion).He is a major shareholder in Bank Rossiya which “is a key stakeholder in the National Media Group which supports Russian policy which is destabilising Ukraine”, the Government said.He was sanctioned by the US in 2014 and is reportedly close to Russian president Vladimir Putin.Boris RotenbergAnother wealthy Russian who has been under US sanctions since 2014, Mr Rotenberg co-owns SMP Bank with his brother Arkady, who is already sanctioned by the UK.The UK Government said that SMP is a “Russian Government affiliated entity” and that Rotenberg has “close personal ties” to Vladimir Putin.Forbes reported that his personal fortune is 1.2 billion dollars (£890 million) and that he has so far evaded US sanctions because he has Finnish citizenship.Igor RotenbergThe son of Arkady, Igor has “close familial ties” to the Russian president, according to the UK Government.He has been on the US sanctions list since 2018, and has a net worth of 1.1 billion dollars (£810 million), according to Forbes. More

Foreign secretary Liz Truss said it is up to regulator Ofcom to decide what kind of content the Russia-backed RT network continues to broadcast in the UK, following calls for a crackdown.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called on the government to tackle the “propaganda” put out by the state-controlled channel, formerly known as Russia Today.Responding, Ms Truss attacked the channel for disseminating “fake news” on behalf of the Kremlin – and suggested that Ofcom should “look” at what it broadcasts.“I think it’s certainly true that it is spouting propaganda on behalf of the Kremlin. One of the things the Kremlin does is use disinformation to try and sow discord in the West – and Russia Today is clearly part of that,” she told Sky News.Challenged on what action should be taken, Ms Truss added: “It is an independent decision of Ofcom about licensing broadcasters.”In more pointed remarks on Times Radio, the foreign secretary said: “I’m of the view Russia Today broadcasts propaganda and fake news on a regular basis, and is effectively an arm of the Russian state, and I’m sure Ofcom is looking at that.”Ofcom has said that – given the seriousness of events in Ukraine – it was ready to act “as a priority” if concerns were raised about the accuracy or impartiality of any broadcaster.A spokesperson for the watchdog told The Independent: “All licensees must observe Ofcom’s rules, including due accuracy and due impartiality. If broadcasters break those rules, we will not hesitate to step in.“Given the seriousness of the Ukraine crisis, we will examine complaints about any broadcaster’s news coverage of this issue as a priority.”In 2019, Ofcom fined RT £200,000 for its failure to observe “due impartiality” in seven news and current affairs programmes, including its coverage of the war in Syria and the Salisbury nerve agent attack.Sir Keir told the Commons on Tuesday that Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “campaign of misinformation” should be tackled – including moves to prevent RT from “broadcasting its propaganda around the world”.In response, RT deputy editor-in-chief Anna Belkina said it was “always a joy to see Western and particularly British politicians finally drop their hypocritical disguise in favour of open interference”.Meanwhile, Ms Truss refused to rule out imposing sanctions on Conservative donors. She told Sky News: “We are very clear that nothing is off the table, in terms of who we’re targeting … I don’t rule out anything.”The foreign secretary also said it would be “completely wrong” for Uefa to allow the Champions League final to still be held in Russian city of St Petersburg in June.Asked on BBC Breakfast if English teams should boycott the event, she said it was a “matter for the teams”, but added that she would not want to be part of the match if she were a player. More

Government has risked and lost “unacceptable” billions due to fraud and error in key Covid support schemes, a new report warns.In a blistering assessment, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee said the mistakes, waste, and openings for fraudsters “will all end up robbing current and future taxpayers of billions of pounds”.MPs on the committee said there was a lack of preparedness and “weakness” in systems — concluding the total cost of government losses remained “uncertain”.But they said: “It has clearly exposed the taxpayer to substantial, long-term financial risks and ‘large amounts’ — now running into many billions of pounds — of taxpayers’ money will be lost to fraud and error”.The committee highlighted that the Covid job retention scheme — which paid the wages of those furloughed during the crisis — alone is estimated to lose £5.3 billion to fraud and error.They added: “The estimated loss to fraud and error across all Covid-19 response measures is not known but is expected to be at least £15 billion across the scheme and loans implemented by HM Revenue & Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy”.According to a National Audit Office from September, the full cost for the lifetime of the government’s Covid-19 measures will reach around £370 billion.The PAC added the Treasury should state what it has learned from the Covid response and what it is doing to collect lessons across government departments. It should also find out how much money has been lost in error and to fraudsters, how much of this will be recovered and how much it will cost to recover it.Chair of the committee, Meg Hillier, added: “As the PAC has made clear across a series of reports on the costs of Covid, lack of preparedness and planning, combined with weaknesses in existing systems across government, have led to an unacceptable level of mistakes, waste, loss and openings for fraudsters which will all end up robbing current and future taxpayers of billions of pounds.”The Labour MP added: “It is essential that for as long as we will be paying the costs of Covid-19, which is at least the next 20 years just in some of the loan repayment terms, the Treasury and all of Government continue to account specifically for what it has spent in response to the pandemic.“Government must be held accountable in this way to all the future taxpayers who will be paying for this response.“Crucially this must ensure lessons are learned for when the next big crisis hits — be it climate, health or financial.”A Treasury spokesperson said: “We reject the claims made in this report. No fraudulent payments have been written off and the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce is expected to recover up to £1bn from fraudulent or incorrect payments.“Our COVID support schemes were rolled out at a time of national crisis, protecting millions of jobs and businesses when they needed it most.“Thanks to the speed and scale of our intervention, the economy is back to pre-pandemic levels and growing at the fastest rate in the G7. The cost of inaction could have had a catastrophic impact on jobs and livelihoods.” More

Liz Truss has refused to rule out slapping sanctions on Conservative Party donors with links to Russia, as the foreign secretary vowed to “inflict more pain” on Vladimir Putin’s regime.The cabinet minister defended the “very serious package” of sanctions announced on Tuesday, despite widespread criticism from both Tory and Labour MPs that the measures do not go far enough.Ms Truss said the UK has a “long list” of people complicit in the actions of the Russian leadership, who the government is willing to “turn up the heat” on unless Moscow pulls back its forces.Asked the government was willing to impose sanctions on Tory donors, the foreign secretary told Sky News: “We are very clear that nothing is off the table, in terms of who we’re targeting … I don’t rule out anything.”Grilled by host Kay Burley if the roughly £2m already donated by Russia-linked donors to the party would be given back, Ms Truss said: “All of the donations to the Conservative are declared from people who are on the electoral register in Britain.”The foreign secretary said: “What we’re taking about is people … closely linked to Vladimir Putin’s regime.”Ms Truss added: “There are many people who have moved from Russia to Britain who are not necessarily friends of Vladimir Putin, and who have become British citizens. That is a completely different matter to people who are close to Vladimir Putin who are backing his appalling regime.”Asked on BBC Breakfast if she was embarrassed to have attended a diner with major Tory donor Lubov Chernukhin, wife of a former Russian minister, she replied: “No I am not.”Boris Johnson faced criticism from all sides for not going far enough when he announced his clutch of measures – sanctions on five Russian banks and three individuals – on Tuesday.Labour’s David Lammy has said the government needs to implement much stronger sanctions, telling BBC Breakfast a threshold had already been “breached” by the Russian move to recognise the independence of separatist regions in the Donbas.The shadow foreign secretary said: “I think the mood of the entire House of Commons yesterday was that the government were not being strong enough …. backbenchers in the Conservative Party (are) hugely concerned that we’ve not been strong or hard enough.”Mr Johnson had to admit that he was mistaken when he told MPs on Tuesday that the Russian billionaire and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich was “already facing sanctions”.Ms Truss said the PM had “misspoke” and “the record will be recorded”. Pressed on whether Mr Abramovich was one of those she would considering sanctioning, the foreign secretary said: “I’m not going to go into details into who is on our list for further sanctions.”The foreign secretary insisted the UK was ready to “escalate” sanctions and “inflict further pain” in the likely event of a full-scale invasion.Asked what a “full-scale invasion” would mean, Ms Truss said it would entail Russian troops moving into “other parts of Ukraine”, adding: “We will know it when we see it. We think it’s highly likely … What we are expecting is a full invasion, including Kyiv.”Liz Truss ‘not embarrassed’ by photo with Russia-linked Tory donorWriting in The Times, the foreign secretary said: “We have a long list of those complicit in the actions of the Russian leadership. Should Russia refuse to pull back its troops we can keep turning up the heat, targeting more banks, elites and companies of significance.”Beyond financial sanctions, Ms Truss added the UK was willing to introduce “measures to limit Russia’s ability to trade and prohibit a range of high-tech exports, degrading the development of its military industrial base for years”.The foreign secretary also said: “We’re clear that sovereign debt will not be able to be raised [in the UK] by the Russian government.”However, the government would need additional legislation to limit sovereign debt sales in the UK. “Should Russia not de-escalate, the UK will shortly introduce legislation which will … prevent Russia from issuing sovereign debt on UK markets,” a Foreign Office statement said.Ms Truss suggested the existing UK sanctions legislation should be enough to sanction members of the Russian parliament – as the government has vowed to do – but said legal work would still need to be done to make them “watertight”.She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We need to make sure that any specific sanctions of individuals are watertight so they can’t be legally challenged.”Ms Truss added: “So yes, we will work to do that over the coming weeks. But we do have the legislation in place. Any individual sanctions we put in place have to be legally watertight.” More

Boris Johnson has become the first prime minister to be questioned under caution by police, a leaked copy of Scotland Yard’s Partygate questionnaire for Downing Street staff suggests.As part of its investigation into allegations of 12 events in breach of coronavirus rules – six of which Mr Johnson is reported to have attended – the Metropolitan Police has sent questionnaires to all those suspected of rule-breaking.According to a copy of the documents, published by ITV News on Tuesday night, recipients are informed at the outset that they have an opportunity to provide “a written statement under caution”.The document reportedly tells recipients they “do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court”, and advises them to “ensure the caution is read and understand prior to any answers to questions being provided”.This level of police questioning would be a historical first for a British prime minister – with Tony Blair having said he would resign in such an event when questioned by police during the cash-for-honours scandal in 2007.Mr Johnson has completed the questionnaire in relation to alleged parties, which the Met previously said had “formal legal status and must be answered truthfully”.According to the copy obtained by ITV News, recipients have been asked around a dozen questions, including whether they believe any “lawful exception” should be applied to gatherings and if they can provide a “reasonable excuse” for participating.Other questions include whether the person participated in a gathering on a specific date, what the purpose of that participation was, and whether or not the person interacted with anyone else.The document reportedly states that those sent the questionnaire are being provided with the “opportunity to cooperate with police in the form of a written statement under caution”.It says there are three ways to respond to the questionnaire – remain silent and answer no questions, provide an answer to the written questions in the attached document or provide a prepared statement in your own words.The police investigations follows allegations of frequent and excessive drinking by Downing Street staff, to the extent where a wine fridge was purchased and staff were dispatched to local supermarkets to fill a suitcase with wine.Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “It is frankly a national embarrassment that Boris Johnson is now the first prime minister in British history to be questioned under police caution.“How on earth can he stay on and claim to uphold British law and order after this?”In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Mr Johnson repeatedly refused to say whether he would quit if he broke the law, refusing to comment 17 times over the course of 11 minutes when asked about parties in Downing Street.Despite there being no obvious legal barrier to him doing so, the prime minister told the Sunday Morning show that there was “not a bean I can tell you about that, much as I would like to”.A Downing Street spokesperson said on Tuesday night: “We have confirmed the prime minister has been contacted by the Metropolitan Police. “We will not be commenting further while the investigation is ongoing.”Speaking to ITV, former Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Dal Babu described the questionnaire as “pretty bland”, suggesting a “lawyer would perhaps give you a ‘get out of jail card’ in response to all of those questions”.He warned the questionnaire “doesn’t seem to be a particularly effective way of investigating” the scandal, adding: “What you would expect is somebody to sit down with the individual, go through the questions.”Additional reporting by PA More

Boris Johnson is coming under pressure to step up sanctions against Russia, after his initial tranche of banking-asset freezes and oligarch travel bans were dismissed as “tepid” and unlikely to deter Vladimir Putin from further aggression against Ukraine.The prime minister told the House of Commons that the sanctions on five banks and three billionaire Putin associates were a prelude to “much, much tougher” action if the Russian president persisted with the invasion of his neighbour.Western officials insisted that the move would have a “significant” impact on the Russian economy.But critics – including longtime Putin adversary Bill Browder, the financier behind the Magnitsky Act targeting Russian human rights abusers – dismissed the package as under-powered.The chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, warned that the strategy of gradually ratcheting up the UK’s response risked giving the impression that Britain was giving Mr Putin “a free pass at an early stage” rather than drawing a line he must not cross.The former soldier said Mr Johnson – who had promised a “barrage” of measures if “a single Russian toecap” infringed on Ukrainian territory – should observe the military principle: “Clout, don’t dribble, to make sure the opposition knows you are serious.”Within hours of the PM’s announcement, Russia’s parliament agreed to a request from President Putin to use the country’s military forces outside the country, a move that could allow a broader attack on Ukraine.The UK’s intervention paled in significance against the announcement by German chancellor Olaf Scholz that he was pulling the plug on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that plays a central role in Mr Putin’s economic strategy.Meanwhile, the EU announced its own sanctions blacklisting 27 individuals and entities in Russia’s defence, banking and financial sectors, banning EU investors from trading in Russian state bonds and targeting imports and exports with separatist regions.After being briefed by military and intelligence chiefs at a pre-dawn meeting of the government’s Cobra emergencies committee, Mr Johnson told MPs it was clear that Mr Putin’s deployment of troops on a purported “peace-keeping” mission in the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk amounted to a “renewed invasion” of the country.The PM said Britain would continue to seek a diplomatic resolution to the crisis “until the last possible moment”.But he said it appeared Mr Putin was “implacably determined to go further in subjugating and tormenting Ukraine” and the international community must prepare for the country becoming “the target of a full-scale war of aggression”.The banks subjected to bans on UK business activities – Rossiya Bank, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank – have little presence in the UK.And the impact of asset freezes and travel bans for Putin allies Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg were expected to be limited as their international activities are already restricted by US sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea.Also to be sanctioned are members of the Duma house of Moscow’s parliament who voted in favour of the Russian-leaning “people’s republics”. And measures are to be taken to deny Russian access to London’s sovereign debt markets.Foreign secretary Liz Truss said the first wave of sanctions would “send a clear message that the UK will use our economic heft to inflict pain on Russia and degrade their strategic interests”, with further measures ready if Mr Putin does not “pull back from the brink”.But Mr Browder described the list as “pretty tepid”, pointing out that Russia’s two biggest banks and dozens of major plutocrats in Mr Putin’s inner circle were untouched.Mr Johnson was also forced into the embarrassing admission that he “misspoke” in telling MPs that Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich was subject to sanctions, while the Foreign Office mistakenly included the address of Russia’s central bank on its list of targeted institutions.A string of Tory MPs lined up to call on Mr Johnson to take more substantial action.Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith said Britain needed to “hit them with sanctions hard and hit them now”, while ex-chief whip Mark Harper called for assurances that there will be “further and stronger measures even if President Putin does no more”.Labour backed the sanctions, but renewed calls for the implementation of the recommendations of 2020’s Russia Report, in which parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee called for action to stem the flood of illicit Russian money within London’s financial institutions.Sir Keir Starmer warned against the slow application of deterrent measures: “If we do not respond with a full set of sanctions now, Putin will once again take away the message that the benefits of aggression outweigh the costs.”Oxford and Exeter university academic Dr Tena Prelec, part of a team researching international kleptocracy, said Mr Johnson’s “contained and reactive” measures risked being “too little too late”.“The UK remains a safe haven for dirty money, a great deal of which comes from Russia and Eurasia,” she said. “Failure to tackle this thriving billion-dollar industry is damaging for the UK’s rule of law and to the UK’s professed role as an opponent of international corruption.” More

Downing Street staff were asked to name a “lawful exception” or “reasonable excuse” for lockdown parties in No 10, a leak has revealed.The Metropolitan Police sent a written questionnaire to those in government suspected of breaking Covid regulations as part of their evidence gathering process over Partygate.The document, a version of which was obtained by ITV News, says that those accused are being given an opportunity to provide “a written statement under caution”.Questionnaires were reportedly tailored to different individuals under investigation, so will not be identical – but the example obtained by the broadcaster gives a flavour of what Mr Johnson was asked.It includes around a dozen questions, including: “Did you participate in a gathering on a specific date” and “What time did you leave”.Other questions include “Did you interact with, or undertake any activity with, other persons present at the gathering. If yes, please provide details”, and “What was the purpose of your participation in that gathering”.The document says people responding to the questionnaire can provide an answer to the questions put, send a statement in their own words, or remain silent.Downing Street confirmed on Friday that the prime minister has submitted his questionnaire, though he has not elaborated on what he said in it.In an interview on BBC’s Sunday Morning the prime minister refused an extraordinary 17 times to answer questions about the events, including whether he felt ashamed.A No 10 spokesperson said: “We have confirmed the prime minister has been contacted by the Metropolitan Police. We will not be commenting further while the investigation is ongoing.” More