Markus Andrews

David Lammy has apologised for nominating Jeremy Corbyn at Labour’s 2015 leadership election.The comments were made at this year’s Limmud festival, a Jewish event which took place virtually this year between Friday 24 and Tuesday 28 December.Mr Lammy said he “never believed” Corbyn would become leader and called his nomination “a mistake”.The shadow foreign secretary told an audience of around 300 that he was “staggered” that individuals with deeply antisemitic views remain in the Labour Party. The remarks were first reported by Jewish News.“I’ve met some of these individuals and am frankly staggered some are still in the party. But as a lawyer I understand that people appeal and go to court. There is a process, which can feel slow and tortuous sometimes, but it must be undertaken,” he said.Mr Lammy added: “I regret nominating Jeremy Corbyn and if I knew what I do now I never would have nominated him.“I never believed he would become leader. That was a mistake and I am sorry for that.”He also described his belief in a “rainbow coalition approach to politics”, acknowledging the Jewish community for standing “shoulder to shoulder” with anti-apartheid leaders including Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.He continued, praising the Jewish community for understanding “the fascism that was at the heart of apartheid and the pernicious evil of discrimination.”Mr Lammy’s comments were made following a recent survey of Jewish Labour Movement members, which found strong satisfaction with Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to address antisemitism within the party.Of the 363 respondents, around 70% said Labour was a safe space for Jewish people under Starmer’s leadership, compared with 4% who felt the same under Corbyn.At Limmud, Mr Lammy continued, saying he was “fully behind” Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, but exercised caution: “I don’t believe the overall culture is toxic any more… but until the party is genuinely welcome for everyone, we remain on a journey.” More

John Major privately admitted that he did not believe the IRA could be defeated militarily, a newly-published memo from a 1992 meeting in Downing St has revealed.According to the Irish Government’s memo, the ex-prime minister also warned that if the republicans thought Britain was afflicted with “battle fatigue”, they were wrong.The comments were made during a meeting in February 1992 between Mr Major, the newly-elected Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and other senior Irish ministers.The discussion in No 10, which came a matter of weeks before the UK general election, was held in amongst a series of talks between the main political parties in Northern Ireland.“Do you think we can defeat the IRA?” the Taoiseach asked Mr Major directly.The prime minister responds: “Militarily that would be very difficult: I would not say this in public, of course, but, in private, I would say, possibly no.”The record reveals the frustrations held by both the British and Irish governments over the lack of progress made following previous talks.Early efforts on the Irish side to have Sinn Fein included in future settlement negotiations also unfold throughout the conversation had between the two leaders. “My own impression is that the talks are not getting anywhere,” Mr Reynolds said.The Prime Minister, referring to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, replied: “Peter Brooke thinks they have some life.”The Taoiseach responds: “I would say that here… but not outside”, adding he believed the IRA were “serious” about making peace after Sinn Fein published Towards a Lasting Peace just days earlier.Mr Major said: “If we pursue that, we could run into very serious opposition here: you know that more bombs are threatened in Whitehall. If they are serious, they are certainly going the wrong way about it.”“They will not get peace by putting bombs in Whitehall – rather the opposite. Why do they behave as they are now behaving if they want peace?”Mr Reynolds then tells Mr Major that “they always do that”.The IRA had launched a mortar attack on 0 Downing Street during a Cabinet meeting in 1991, a year before the meeting from which the memo was taken.Mr Reynolds continued: “Before a cessation of violence, they always become more active. They always like it to appear that if a ceasefire comes about, then they have not acted from weakness.”“Is there any way in which we could look at the language, with a view to moving things along?” Mr Reynolds asks, seemingly in reference to the Sinn Fein document.The British prime minister said: “I know Gerry Adams and one or two others are involved in this. They think we are suffering from battle fatigue. They’re wrong. They could be engaged in a very cynical game.”Further on into the meeting, the Taoiseach said he thinks “peace may well be in sight”, but warned that the two governments were dealing with “divided community.”“We must draw up structures to accommodate these differences; and these structures must command confidence. I am talking about the longer term – there is no instant solution,” he said.John Major replied: “We cannot suddenly move to an end product but we are walking down a path – and we can’t stop: we can’t stop talking – or walking.“Twenty two years is a long time: there are a lot of dead bodies in between.”Mr Major told the present parties: “I have the misfortune not to be an Irishman but I understand the importance of symbolism. We must be prepared to do unconventional things.” More

Boris Johnson’s government has ruled out further Covid restrictions in England before the new year, leaving the country at odds with other parts of the UK where curbs have been tightened to tackle the Omicron variant.Health secretary Sajid Javid confirmed that the prime minister had decided not to bring in any fresh measures this week, but said ministers would look again in January at whether more controls were needed.“There will be no further measures before the new year,” Mr Javid told reporters on Monday. “We won’t be taking any further measures. Of course people should remain cautious as we approach new year celebrations.”The prime minister said added that he would “continue to monitor the data carefully.”However, Mr Johnson was warned that the NHS could soon be “overwhelmed” by the rise in Covid cases, as the trade union for hospital doctors said it was “ludicrous” not to bring in further measures immediately.Daily Covid case numbers hit record highs in England and Scotland over Christmas, figures published on Monday showed, while the number of Covid patients in London hospitals increased by almost 50 per cent within a week.The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) said it was time for Downing Street to bring in fresh restrictions – including limits on household mixing and table service only in pubs and restaurants.“We would definitely propose that there is a more precautionary approach taken – we should be doing something more,” HCSA president Dr Claudia Paoloni said on Monday, adding that it would “take very little” to overwhelm the health service in the weeks ahead.The decision not to impose restrictions beyond the plan B measures already in place in England comes after Mr Johnson was briefed by England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance on infections and hospitalisations.The latest data shows a clear increase in Covid bed occupancy over the past week. Across England, a total of 8,474 patients were in hospital with the disease on 27 December, compared to 6,688 a week before – a 27 per cent rise.And in the capital, the hotspot for the Omicron variant, bed occupancy has surged by almost 50 per cent over this time frame, increasing from 1,819 to 2,640.Dr Julia Patterson, chief executive of the campaign group Every Doctor, told Sky News: “This government has chosen not to act early with the Omicron variant … There seems to be a reticence to listen to experts, which is deeply concerning – we’ve seen this so many times before.”Ian Higginson, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the current number of staff absences from Covid in NHS emergency departments could soon “push us over the edge”.He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Our members, those who got back to us, were pretty emphatic that they are suffering significant staffing issues right now. We’re worried that something is going to have to give.”However, Conservative MPs welcomed the news that there would be no recall of parliament to push through further legal restrictions this week.Tory lockdown sceptic Andrew Bridgen said: “The reason we’re not having any further restrictions is because the data just doesn’t support it … What’s happened in Wales and Scotland is an overreaction.”Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said it would “not be a cop-out at all” for Mr Johnson to offer strengthened guidance on socialising rather than legal restrictions, adding: “I think that would be a very sensible way to go forward.”Restrictions on hospitality and large events have been brought in elsewhere in the UK, with the Scottish government ordering nightclubs to be shuttered from Monday while hospitality businesses will need to return to table service only if serving alcohol.Asked why Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had chosen to tighten up restrictions ahead of the new year celebrations, Mr Javid said: “It’s for each country that makes up the UK to decide how it wants to go forward.”He added: “When we get into the new year, of course we will see then whether we do need to take any further measures, but nothing more until then at least.”Labour said people “will be relieved” to see no new restrictions, but urged the government to “come forward with a plan” to keep the NHS running and schools open through the latest wave.Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, called on the government to publish all the latest data on hospitalisations and NHS staff absences “so that the public can be reassured that they are genuinely following the data and scientific advice and that Boris Johnson is not simply capitulating to his own opponents in the Tory party”.England saw its highest-ever daily total of Covid cases on Christmas Day, when 113,628 cases were recorded. A further 103,558 cases were recorded on Boxing Day and a further 98,515 cases confirmed on Monday, following a lag in the data over the festive holiday.Scotland also hit its highest number of Covid cases since the start of the pandemic after 11,030 cases were confirmed for Boxing Day. First minister Nicola Sturgeon said that while the rate of hospital admissions with Omicron is lower than previous strains, rising cases will “put inevitable further strain on the NHS”.Meanwhile, the UK Health Security Agency announced 45,307 additional confirmed cases of the Omicron variant. The number of deaths in England of people with Omicron variant rose to 39, while hospital admissions with Omicron in England rose to 407.Mr Javid said the Omicron variant was now growing so fast that it accounts for 90 per cent of all new Covid cases. The health secretary said that since the government had learned of Omicron its strategy had been to “buy time”, adding that the best form of defence was vaccination. More

Members of the House of Lords pocketed nearly £15m in taxpayers’ cash from daily allowances and expenses over the last year, new figures show.Peers claimed £13.2m for their daily allowance between August 2020 and July this year, according to research by the House of Commons library.The unelected politicians in the upper chamber claimed a further £1.7m in expenses, despite proceedings being done remotely during much of the period.The SNP said the “ludicrous sums” showed why the Lords should be abolished – accusing Labour of backing away from previous promises to replace it with an elected second chamber.Analysis by Nicola Sturgeon’s party found that, with 22,140 speeches made by peers last year, an average of £674 was claimed per contribution in allowance and expenses.“The unelected House of Lords is a permanent stain on our democracy,” said Pete Wishart, the SNP’s shadow Commons leader.“Taxpayers up and down the country will rightly feel aggrieved that their taxes are being spent – in ludicrous sums – on an undemocratic, outdated system,” he continued.“Only by achieving independence can we finally rid ourselves of this toxic, undemocratic system once and for all.”Peers do not take a salary for their role, but can claim a £323 allowance for each day they attend in person or £162 if they join the work of the Lords remotely.In the run-up to the 2019 general election, the then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to get rid of the “undemocratic anachronism” and replace it with an elected second chamber. But his successor, Sir Keir Starmer, has yet to formulate a clear position on the future of the Lords.A Lords spokesperson pointed out that the latest annual figures represented a reduction in the total amount claimed on the previous year, “due to changes to working practices” during the pandemic.“The House of Lords is a busy and effective chamber, scrutinising and improving laws that affect all of us and holding the government to account,” a spokesperson said. More

Overuse of antibiotics on farm animals could lead to a pandemic “much bigger than Covid,” campaigners have warned.Health experts are calling for a ban on the use of low doses of antibiotics on healthy farm animals, saying the practice was breeding untreatable “superbugs” which could spread to humans.Farmers often give animals a preventative low dose of antibiotics as an insurance policy against disease. But from 28 January, new EU legislation will prohibit all forms of routine antibiotic use in farming, including preventative treatments.The government’s veterinary medicines directorate has begun a consultation about whether the UK should follow suit.Use of antibiotics on farmed animals has decreased significantly over the past few years – a 52 per cent reduction since 2014 – but campaigners say this does not go far enough.They are calling on the government to follow the EU and ban the practice of giving the drugs to healthy farm animals.The UK’s Health Security Agency warned last month that antimicrobial resistance was a “hidden pandemic”, while the World Health Organisation has estimated drug-resistant diseases could killed 10 million people globally each year by 2050 if no action is taken. Doctors are now trying to tackle patients’ overdependence on antibiotics by decreasing their prescription. Although 66 per cent of antibiotics are used by humans, a sizeable percentage – 26 per cent – are used on farm animals.Suzi Shingler, campaign manager for the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, said: “If you imagine a big herd of pigs or chickens that are stressed and overcrowded, the immune suppression they get from this environment is really asking for disease and illness to spread. Instead of making changes to these conditions, it has been for decades cheaper and easier to give them all low levels of antibiotics in their feed and water.”Ms Shingler warned low doses could significantly increase the risk of breeding untreatable bacteria. “Mass dosing creates the perfect breeding ground for the strongest type of bacteria to survive,” she said. “The worst elements will survive the long-term low dosing of antibiotics and it’s like supercharging the normal natural selection process of superbugs.”These bacteria can make their way to humans through waterways, such as during wild swimming, as well as through undercooked meat products and effluent spread on fields.Daniel Zeichner MP, the shadow food, farming and fisheries minister, said that while there has been “some progress to reduce antibiotics in farm animals, we need more ambition and urgency from this government”.He added: “Farmers and the food industry should follow the voluntary code by stopping routinely using antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals, as the World Health Organisation has long advised.” He also called on the government to ensure that trade deals require “at least the same standards for imported animal products” as British farmers adhere to. SNP MP Lisa Cameron, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Health, said that she was “deeply concerned about the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture” and warned of the “ease with which antimicrobial resistance can develop in humans”. She concluded that recommendations from the Health Select Committee on the issue should be “taken forward urgently”.A 2018 inquiry by the committee warned of “serious concerns” about the use of antibiotics on healthy animals. They warned “attention must be paid to this following the UK’s departure from the EU” and recommended any future trade deals commit to the same standards in antibiotic use as the EU.But Chris Lloyd, secretary general of the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (Ruma), said the UK has “got a positive story in terms of antibiotic use”. He said that there was a debate to be had about whether the UK followed Europe “because we’ve already done a lot of what the EU is trying to achieve”.Ruma has been working with each of the UK farm animal sectors to raise awareness about the dangers of antimicrobial resistance.Referring to the prospect of a ban, he said: “You can always do more and we continue to work on responsible use but our recent track record is a positive one.“I’m not convinced that a black and white decision is the right one when the realities are often much more complex. Do we need more restrictions in the way antibiotics are used when we’ve done so well in reducing their use already?”Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, said Britain was making “important reductions” in antibiotic use on farm animals. She promised to continue working closely with the industry and added: “It is encouraging to see farmers and vets continuing to work together to tackle antibiotic resistance.” The National Farmers’ Union said its members had cut voluntarily cut antibiotic use by 52 per cent since 2014. Catherine McLaughlin, the NFU’s chief animal health and welfare adviser, added: “We will consult with our members and respond accordingly when the detail of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate consultation comes out.”Research carried out by World Animal Protection (WAP) last year found dangerous antibiotic resistant superbugs in rivers and lakes near factory farms in Spain, the USA, Canada and Thailand.The group collected surface soil and dust particles from waterways upstream and downstream from pig farms in North Carolina, US. Eighty-three out of 90 samples came back positive for antimicrobial resistant genes, a “widespread contamination” that researchers concluded “strongly suggests factory farms are discharging resistance genes into public waterways”.The group will be carrying out similar research in the UK next year.Lindsay Duncan, UK campaign manager at WAP, said the coronavirus pandemic had shown how the issues emerging in one country were not confined there. She said: “If there are one or two bad players that’s still going to cause a problem for the rest of the world.“It’s not just the case of the EU doing the right thing. We all need to be doing this and putting in this legislation. This is going to be the next major pandemic and it’s going to have a really big effect on people.”Ms Duncan said antimicrobial resistance was “actually going to be much bigger than Covid” because the problem could not be solved with vaccines. “We can’t just produce vaccines for bacterial infections. These medicines have allowed us to live the way we do; having amazing life expectancies, heart transplants, major surgeries and recover well from them.”She warned: “If antimicrobial resistance continues growing in the way that it is right now we are going to lose one of our most powerful medications. There is no fix for that, so it has to be addressed now.” More

Vulnerable people at risk of long-term unemployment will be left without help because of delays and cuts to “levelling up” funding, experts are warning.Michael Gove has been alerted to “a loss of services” after a long-promised Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) – to replace EU grants lost because of Brexit – was slashed by almost £2bn over 3 years.The fund had already been delayed for one year – costing poorer areas of the UK around another £1.5bn – triggering criticism that development projects have been put at risk.Now the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) has warned that the work of organisations to find jobs for “the most vulnerable in society” is also under threat.They include school leavers, disabled people and over-50s, who receive extra help to develop skills and prepare for the world of work – previously funded from the lost EU grants.In a letter, to Mr Gove, the levelling up secretary – seen by The Independent – the ERSA demands answers on when the SPF will finally get underway and on the scale of any cuts.Otherwise, “some providers of important services will be lost because of this ongoing uncertainty”, Elizabeth Taylor, the group’s chief executive, has written.She tells Mr Gove: “This could lead to some of the most vulnerable in society no longer receiving the help they need. It is of paramount importance that this does not happen, particularly in a post-Covid economy when support is needed most.”Key unanswered questions include what cash will be set aside for work schemes, whether local bodies will help control the fund, or whether Mr Gove will make “all the key decisions”, Ms Taylor says.There is also evidence that money is being diverted to other projects, including an existing programme to improve adult numeracy skills.Ms Taylor added: “European funding has long-since been embedded in employability contracts, going back to the 1980s.“It has always been able to reach people who weren’t actively involved in the labour market, for whatever reason, and it’s been able to respond to local skills and employment challenges.“We still don’t know when the new Shared Prosperity Fund will start. My concern is that if this is allowed to drift, we will start losing providers in employment support.”The funding pot is seen as crucial to the long-promised strategy to “level up” the country – Mr Johnson’s stated mission for his premiership – which is itself mired in delay and confusion.It is now expected in late January, but is unlikely to include any extra funding and is expected to focus on everything from cutting crime to restoring “pride” in local communities.The ERSA, representing 274 organisations ranging from multinational companies to local charities, has been raising fears about the threat to job schemes from the removal of EU structural funds for two years.The Budget revealed the SPF will receive just £2.6bn over 3 years – not the £4.5bn without Brexit – after already being delayed until 2022, 15 months after the UK left the EU.South Yorkshire will lose a further £900m, and Tees Valley and Durham £750m, over six years that they were in line to receive having become relatively poorer since the last spending round.The government had pledged to match the lost EU funding after Brexit – to “tackle inequality and deprivation” – but has been accused of breaking that promise.But a government spokesperson defended diverting cash to the Multiply adult numeracy programme.“It’s right for this to be delivered as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which ramps up to £1.5bn per year in 2024-25,” the spokesperson said. More

Boris Johnson has been warned his party is set to lose more than 100 seats if he fails to curb public anger over sleaze, with five cabinet ministers on course for defeat at the next general election.A major new poll and constituency-by-constituency analysis shows the Conservatives’ majority would be wiped out, leaving Labour the largest party in a hung parliament.Labour is on 41 per cent – six points clear of the Conservatives, who are on 35 per cent – according to the huge Survation survey of 10,000 adults carried out on behalf of campaign group 38 Degrees.This could see the Tories winning 255 seats, a net loss of 111, while Labour would return 309 seats – just 11 short of a majority, according to multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) analysis.Mr Johnson is one of the cabinet members projected to lose their seats in the analysis. The others on course for defeat are environment secretary George Eustice, Scottish secretary Alister Jack, Welsh secretary Simon Hart, and Cop26 president Alok Sharma.The survey revealed that older voters and those in rural areas were most likely to be concerned by the recent sleaze scandals and lockdown party allegations that have engulfed No 10.“Given that older voters are ordinarily much more likely to vote Conservative, this shows the potential for accusations of sleaze to shift votes by depriving the Conservatives of this important electoral bulwark,” said Prof Christopher Hanretty of Royal Holloway University, who helped carry out the MRP analysis.Of 40 crucial “red wall” Tory seats in the north of England and Midlands, only three – Dudley North, Morley and Outwood, and Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland – are projected to be held by Mr Johnson’s party.And the party faces electoral wipe-out in Scotland, where the SNP is on course to win all of the Conservative Party’s seats – including Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross’s Moray constituency.A separate Focaldata poll published on Sunday gave Labour an eight-point lead over the Tories and indicated they would win a majority.But polling guru Sir John Curtice cautioned against over-interpreting the strength of the opposition’s poll lead over the past few weeks, saying Sir Keir Starmer’s party has yet to gain voters’ trust.“We are talking about a collapse in the Tory vote, not a revival of the Labour party,” he told the i. “The point is that Labour still have to make any kind of significant advance in their own popularity. This is all about the Tories going down the tubes.”It comes as a major Tory donor questioned whether Mr Johnson should be replaced. “What really concerns me is this sleaze issue and him not standing firmly enough against what’s gone on,” John Caudwell, the founder of Phones4U, told The Observer.“I was unbelievably disappointed when I heard him almost defending and … trying to find an out for Owen Paterson. I’m not sure he can survive this, and I’m not even sure he should survive it.”Foreign secretary Liz Truss is Tory supporters’ favourite to replace Mr Johnson if he departs No 10, according to the results of a survey published on Monday by the ConservativeHome website. An online poll showed 23 per cent backing for Ms Truss as the next party leader, ahead of 20 per cent support for chancellor Rishi Sunak. More

Boris Johnson’s government has been urged to take action to tackle rising gas and electricity prices, amid growing concerns over the cost-of-living crisis faced by families across the UK.Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is expected to hold “emergency” meetings with energy chiefs on Monday to address rapidly rising wholesale gas prices, which are set to have a knock-on impact on household bills.Industry bosses are reportedly ready to ask for tax cuts and the relaxation of green levies in a bid to avoid further bankruptcies in the sector.Ovo chief executive Stephen Fitzpatrick said the impact of soaring wholesale gas prices would be “an enormous crisis for 2022”.“We’ve seen this energy crisis unfold now for the last three months, and we’ve watched as energy prices have spiked, fallen back, and spiked again,” he told the BBC. “We’ve had more than 30 bankruptcies in the sector, we’ve had millions of customers forced to change supplier.”Mr Fitzpatrick added: “The cost to the consumer has already been more than £4bn. We haven’t seen any action from the government or from the regulator. There’s an acceptance that there’s a problem – but nowhere near enough urgency to find a solution.”Fears of runaway fuel bills in 2022 have been mounting since rising gas prices began bankrupting suppliers in September. Since then, prices have risen from 54p per therm of gas to £4.50.Household energy bills have been tipped by experts to jump to a record £2,000 a year, after the energy regulator authorised suppliers to increase bills by 12 per cent for a typical household on standard tariffs.A further announcement on the energy price cap is due in February ahead of a second rise in April – with another hike expected to pay for the collapse of more than two dozen energy firms in recent months.“We suggest that the tariff cap could jump by 56 per cent, reaching £2,000 [a year] for the summer 2022 period,” Martin Young, an analyst at the investment bank Investec, said shortly before Christmas.Labour has urged Rishi Sunak to use a “windfall” of £3.1bn to help hard-pressed families, and has called on the chancellor to take action on reducing household energy bills.New analysis by the party, based on figures from research carried out by the House of Commons library, projected that the government would receive £3.1bn extra in VAT receipts in 2021-22.The sum would cover the estimated £2.4bn cost of removing VAT from fuel bills over the winter, said Labour.“Right now, people are being hit by a cost-of-living crisis which has seen energy bills soar, food costs increase and the weekly budget stretched,” said shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.“That’s why Labour is calling on the government to immediately remove VAT on household heating bills over the winter months.”A government spokesperson said: “We regularly engage with the energy industry and will continue to ensure that consumers are protected through the energy price cap, which is insulating millions from record global gas prices.” More