Markus Andrews

Sir Keir Starmer has accused the government of undermining the country’s energy security by failing to secure domestic gas storage capacity, as he warned of a “winter cost of living crisis”.Highlighting the decision to permanently close the UK’s largest gas storage facility in 2017, the Labour leader will also criticise Boris Johnson for failing to “get a grip” of the situation.It comes as rising global prices of gas place severe pressure on energy companies, who issued the alarm over greater volatility in costs at the time of the announced closure of the Rough storage site off the Yorkshire coast.Experts warned earlier this week that Europe may have to tap into emergency supplies normally considered off limits, due to historically low stocks this winter, with further spikes in wholesale prices expected as temperatures drop.Sir Keir is expected to visit the Rough site, which will be decommissioned from 2023, on Thursday and warn the country is facing a “winter cost of living crisis, and gas prices for every household are going up”.He will also highlight data from the European Gas Storage Inventory showing the UK had the second lowest amount of gas in store per capital last month.“The government’s failure to secure our gas storage has undermined our energy security and has left us exposed to global prices,” Sir Keir said. “This is another example of broken promises from this prime minister, being felt in the pockets of working people.”He added: “His failure to get a grip is not only costing people now, but it’s hindering the strength of our future economy.“The Conservative government’s limited commitment to hydrogen, a pivotal pillar in our transition to net zero, is no more than a drop in the ocean when compared to our neighbours. Their dither and delay is costing us jobs.”The GMB union also insisted that the failure to replace the Rough gas storage facility was “utter foolishness” and that further investment in hydrogen technology could save 100,000 jobs across the country.The organisation’s general secretary, Gary Smith, added: “In light of Storm Arwen and the electricity power outages facing many parts of the UK — ensure communities can continue to weather the elements without the heating going off with the lights”.“Failing to replace the Rough storage facility when it closed was utter foolishness – as GMB was at pains to point out at the time. Unfortunately, and predictably, our warnings fell on deaf ears.“We must not play fast and loose with our energy security again – but keeping our homes warm and hitting our net zero targets can go hand in hand.”A government spokesperson said: “The current energy situation is not an issue of supply, but high global gas prices. As recent market activity has shown, domestic gas storage capacity has had little bearing on the price of gas.“While some countries have to store gas to ensure their own security of supply, the UK benefits from access to our own gas reserves in British territorial waters and secure sources from reliable import partners, such as Norway.” More

Refugee children who arrive in the UK without their parents lag three years behind their peers at school, says new research accusing the government of neglect.The attainment gap – at GCSE level – is similar to that of children with special educational needs and with the most severe disabilities, an education think-tank is warning.Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are also more likely to miss lessons or to be excluded from school than students who are not migrants, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has found.In contrast, asylum-seeking children living with family members, and resettled refugee children, are less likely to be excluded – and their attainment gap is less than half as big.Jo Hutchinson, the report’s author, called on ministers to beef up help for children who are too often “invisible to the system when it comes to education”.“It is deeply concerning that the government does not follow the progress of these pupils and that they receive very little support compared to other highly vulnerable groups,” she said.“We need to see the government do far more to prioritise the needs of refugee and asylum-seeking pupils.”The study is believed to be the first to examine the educational outcomes of the majority of asylum-seeking and refugee pupils in England.It comes as the Nationality and Borders Bill returns to the Commons – introducing another crackdown on asylum-seekers – and amid clashes with France on how to stop refugee boats.EPI researchers drew together information from national statistics data obtained through freedom of information requests to the Home Office.They established that:* Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were, in 2016-17, on average 37.4 months behind non-migrant children across all GCSE subjects.* The attainment gap for refugee children who have been resettled, or are receiving family support, is still large but much smaller – at 17.3 months.* Absence rates for Year 11 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were 6.8 per cent – compared with 6.6 per cent for non-migrant children and only 5 per cent for supported and resettled pupils.* Exclusions (7.1 per cent) were also higher than for non-migrant children (5.2 per cent) than supported and resettled pupils (4.4 per cent).* However, there are “near zero” permanent exclusions of unaccompanied asylum-seeking pupils, which are lower than the 0.11 per cent for non-migrant children.In response, the Department for Education pointed to the “significant investment to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds” – rather than addressing refugee children separated from their parents.“Councils receive additional funding to help meet the educational needs of children in care, including unaccompanied minors, who also benefit from the support of a virtual school head,” a spokesperson said. The Borders Bill has sparked an outcry because it will tear up refugee law, denying asylum rights to people arriving via unauthorised routes – who will be criminalised and face removal.Border Force officials whose actions could result in deaths at sea will be granted immunity, while people who help asylum seekers enter the UK, even for altruistic reasons, could be prosecuted. More

Former health secretary Matt Hancock has faced further questions over the involvement of the former landlord of his local pub in a multimillion-pound coronavirus contract.Mr Hancock, who quit the front bench after breaching social distancing guidance by kissing a colleague, protested his innocence on Wednesday when pressed on the matter by Labour.The Conservative MP told the opposition “no matter how hard they look or how deep they dig” they will only find “a lot of people working hard to save lives”.His defence came after the Labour Party chairwoman, Anneliese Dodds, had insisted Mr Hancock should “set the record straight” and withdraw his remark that it was a “fabrication” to suggest his friend and West Suffolk constituent Alex Bourne applied for or received a contract from the government or NHS.Questions have been repeatedly raised about Mr Hancock’s involvement in helping Mr Bourne obtain a lucrative contract to supply test tubes for NHS Covid-19 testing.The Mail on Sunday, following a contested Freedom of Information request, obtained messages between Mr Hancock and Mr Bourne in which the MP personally referred a plea for business to Jonathan Marron, at the time the director-general of community and social care at the Department of Health.A message from Mr Bourne, who runs a food packaging company, initially raised the possibility of making personal protective equipment (PPE) such as surgical face masks, before later exchanges reveal a switch to producing items involved in coronavirus testing.Mr Bourne at one time owned The Cock Inn in Thurlow, near Cambridge, and reportedly got to know Mr Hancock when the MP lived close by.Ms Dodds told the Commons: “The Good Law Project has published evidence indicating that a company, Alpha Laboratories, won a contract worth over £40m from the Department of Health and Social Care in December 2020, and that this company appears to have sub-contracted all of the manufacturing of goods to another company, Hinpack Limited, which appears to be run by (Mr Hancock’s) constituent.”Mr Hancock replied: “This point of order and the point made in it demonstrates very clearly that there was no contract between the firm being discussed and the department or the NHS.”Of course, the Department of Health and the NHS does not have a say in sub-contracting arrangements.“So what this has done is demonstrated finally and for the record that there was no such contract between my constituent and the department or NHS.”All of this has been looked at by the National Audit Office, who found all to have been done in an orderly way.“Finally, no matter how hard they look or how deep they dig all that will be discovered is a lot of people working hard to save lives. That’s what was going on.”On Tuesday, Mr Hancock had told Ms Dodds: “I have heard this point about this pub landlord and I just want to tell her and the House, and put it formally on the record, and after this I hope the Labour Party will also stop this slur, that the man in question never got nor applied for a contract from the Government or the NHS at all.”It is a fabrication pushed by the Labour Party. It’s a load of rubbish.“Additional reporting by PA More

Fresh evidence has emerged of the depths to which the UK’s relationship with France has sunk, as French media reported that Emmanuel Macron referred to Boris Johnson in private as “un clown”.Amid a continuing stand-off over France’s handling of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, a former French ambassador to London, Sylvie Bermann, said that cross-Channel relations had “never been so bad since Waterloo”.The magazine Le Canard Enchaîné quoted the French president describing the Johnson administration to advisers as a “circus” and accusing the prime minister of trying to portray himself as a victim in order to avoid blame for the “catastrophic” outcome of Brexit.Home secretary Priti Patel was on Thursday visiting Italy to discuss illegal immigration, on the first leg of a drive to win support from capitals across the EU for the UK’s demands for tougher action in the Channel in the wake of last week’s tragic death of 27 people whose inflatable boat sank during an attempted crossing.Mr Macron withdrew Ms Patel’s invitation to an emergency summit hosted by Paris on Sunday after Mr Johnson published a six-page letter to the president in which he demanded that France take back migrants who reach British shores but are deemed to be illegal.Paris is instead offering to allow UK officials to process asylum claims on French soil, in a proposal dismissed by London as merely another “pull factor” to encourage migrants to come to the Channel coast.According to Le Canard Enchaîné – a satirical and investigative publication similar to Private Eye – Mr Macron complained of Mr Johnson’s behaviour following a phone conversation shortly after last Wednesday’s tragedy.Describing Mr Johnson as having “the attitude of a vulgarian”, the president reportedly added: “BoJo talks to me at full speed, everything is going fine, we have discussions like big people, and then he gives us a hard time before or afterwards in an inelegant way.“It’s always the same circus.”Three days later on Saturday, following the publication of Mr Johnson’s letter, Mr Macron is reported to have said: “It is sad to see a major country with which we could do huge numbers of things being led by a clown.”The French president is reported to have blamed the PM’s attitude on the failure of Brexit.“Brexit is the starting point of the Johnson circus,” he is reported to have said.“The deal was signed on 24 December 2020. Very quickly he realised that the situation was catastrophic for the British. There was no petrol in the pumps, there were shortages of a whole pile of products.“He is positioning himself as the victim and making France the scapegoat. He tries to turn simple situations into complex problems.“We’ve been in this position since March. He’s done it over the ‘sausage war’ over fishing, over the submarine affair.“In private he says he’s sorry to behave like this, but he says that he has to consider public opinion over everything else.”Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson said he had not seen the report.But he added: “The important thing that the public on both sides of the Channel want us to do is to focus on how we avoid further loss of life.”There was no immediate response from the Elysée Palace to a request from The Independent for comment.There was some progress in another issue bedevilled cross-Channel relations, with the announcement that Guernsey has approved all 43 of the licences which France was demanding for its fishing boats under the terms of Britain’s post-Brexit trade agreement.However, Paris said that France is still awaiting 59 licences from Jersey and 52 licences to fish in the territorial waters 6-12 miles off Britain’s shores.Speaking ahead of her meeting with Italian interior minister Luciana Lamorgese in Rome, Ms Patel said: “The appalling and tragic events in the Channel last week served as a reminder of how people are put at peril when in the hands of criminal gangs.“It is not just in the Channel that we are seeing this appalling trade in human cargo or the weaponisation of people. From the thousands of people being smuggled in boats into Europe from Africa or the ongoing scenes at the Poland/Belarus border, this crisis is truly a global one that requires global solutions.“That is why countries across Europe must come together to respond and strengthen both our resolve and borders to disrupt this trade, and that is exactly why I am in Italy today.”The Home Office’s clandestine Channel threat commander denied on Wednesday that UK authorities had ignored calls for help from the victims of last week’s inflatable boat sinking.Daniel O’Mahoney told the parliamentary human rights committee that there were “multiple migrant boats” in the water at the time and the coastguard responded to “every single one of them”.He added: “I can’t tell you with any certainty whether we definitely received a call from that boat or not… if the people from that boat had called the UK authorities, I can tell you that we definitely responded to that call.”The committee said that the government should scrap plans to turn back migrant boats at sea because they “endanger lives” and are likely to breach human rights laws.In a report, it warned pushbacks are “not the solution” to curbing Channel crossings and would “do the opposite of what is required to save lives”.But immigration minister Tom Pursglove told them: “The maritime tactics to which you refer have been signed off by ministers. We consider that they are safe and legal.“I am clear that we will always act in accordance with international maritime law.” More

Guernsey has issued all the post-Brexit fishing licences France says its fishermen are entitled to for fishing in waters around the UK. The Channel island announced on Twitter that it has granted 43 licences for fishing vessels registered in Brittany and Normandy.The licences were issued under Article 502 of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which stipulates that fishermen can fish in British waters if they apply for a licence and can prove they operated there in the past.The 43 licences mean that the fishermen can continue to fish in the English Channel from February next year.Guernsey official Jonathan Le Tocq said: “We have reached a significant milestone in our licensing roadmap announced back in September.“We value our good relationships with Normandy, Brittany and La Manche, and I hope that today’s announcement provides welcome certainty and stability in this new era.”France’s seas minister Annick Girardin said the new licences is “excellent news” but that French fishermen are still waiting for dozens more from Britain and Jersey.France has said that Britain is failing to respect their agreed licensing system, an accusation that the latter denies.Guernsey’s authorities had so far renewed licences on an interim monthly basis while it had considered the applications.The other vessels on the interim list will be able to fish until 31 January next year. After that, they can only fish in British waters if they can provide evidence that they fished there in the past.The long-standing fishing dispute is one issue that has caused immense friction between the UK and France.French president Emmanuel Macron, who faces an election next year, has said his government will not rest until his fishermen have all the licences they are owed.The EU has given Britain until 10 December to take action to help resolve the issue.French fishermen protested last week by temporarily blockading the port of Calais and Channel Tunnel rail link in efforts to disrupt trade between Britain and the continent.The action was taken days after 27 migrants died in the Channel after the dinghy carrying them deflated and capsized. More

Three Conservative MPs have ditched advisory positions in the wake of last month’s furore over Westminster second jobs.Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith gave up a £20,000 post with a health group, while ex-Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith quit jobs worth £144,000 a year and former health minister Steve Brine dropped work worth £20,000 a year with a pharmaceutical firm.All of the posts came to an end within days of Boris Johnson’s 16 November call for a ban on parliamentary consultancy, strategy and advice work, as he struggled to get back on the front foot on sleaze following his botched attempt to save Brexit comrade Owen Paterson from punishment for paid lobbying.There is no suggestion that any of the MPs doing advisory work had breached rules in the way that Mr Paterson did.But Mr Johnson’s plans, approved by the Commons in a vote the day after they were proposed and backed by an interim report of the House’s standards committee earlier this week, would also ban wider advisory work involving MPs drawing on their experience and knowledge of parliament.At least 30 MPs have recorded earnings from consultancy work, according to the register of MPs’ interests.But the latest edition of the register includes amendments apparently triggered by the impending change in the rules, which are due for implementation following the publication of the standards committee’s final report in January.Chingford and Wood Green MP Sir Iain recorded that his membership of the international advisory board of Tunstall Health Group, involving up to 30 hours’ work a year for £20,000, came to an end on 30 November after three and a half years.Mr Smith, MP for Winchester, gave up his positions as external adviser with Hygen Energy Ltd, Simply Blue Management (UK) Ltd and MJM Marine Ltd on 16 November.And Skipton and Ripon MP Mr Brine’s post as a strategic adviser to Sigma (Pharmaceuticals) came to an end on 18 November. More

The omicron variant could see a surge in new Covid-19 infections across Britain even bigger than previous waves, a key group of government advisers has warned.Scientists in the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which advises Boris Johnson’s government, met last week to discuss the impact of the new variant in the UK.“We cannot exclude that this wave would be of a magnitude similar, or even larger, than previous waves,” the advisers stated in minutes from the 25 November meeting.In a stark warning for the NHS, they said “a large wave of infections will be accompanied by a wave of severe cases, and the subgroup cannot rule out that this may be sufficient to overwhelm NHS capacity.”The experts also called for “early and robust actions” to limit the transmission of the variant first detected in South Africa in the UK.It follows leaked minutes from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) which warned that omicron could see a “very large wave” of infections in the UK and may need tougher restrictions to protect the NHS.The Sage warning added: “This would in turn lead to a potentially high number of hospitalisations even with protection against severe disease being less affected.”Although the top scientists remain unsure how big a wave of omicron infection might be, Sage advisers warned that a “very stringent response measures” may be needed from Downing Street.No 10 said ministers make “balanced” judgements on scientific advice received after the leaked Sage papers suggested testing people for Covid before they travel to the UK would be “valuable”.Asked if the government had ignored the guidance, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “At all times we take account of any clinical advice we receive, and then we need to make a balanced judgement on what is right.”Labour said the lack of pre-departure testing for those flying to the UK from abroad was an “obvious gap in the country’s defences” against the Omicron variant – demanding “strong action at the border now”.No 10 was also challenged on whether it was now government policy that party-goers take a lateral flow test before events, after health secretary Sajid Javid earlier suggested that people could take a test before attending parties.The PM’s official spokesman said: “I think he was very clear about what he was saying. He was setting out that we do have a significant testing capacity, and if people wanted further reassurance they could use that.”Results of detailed laboratory studies on omicron are expected in the coming weeks, but both Sage and Nervtag groups have warned it is likely the new variant can escape immunity from existing vaccines “to some extent”.The Nervtag advisers said mutations observed in the variant “include some that are known to be associated with enhanced transmissibility” and are also “highly likely to result in reduced neutralising ability of antibodies”. More

Watch live as Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQsPrime minister Boris Johnson has failed to deny reports that he attended two Downing Street parties during Covid lockdowns in the run-up to Christmas last year.Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Johnson insisted that “all guidance was followed” but did not dispute claims in the Daily Mirror that he and 40 or 50 staff held gatherings at the end of November and in December when restrictions were in place.Elsewhere, an investigation has been launched by the parliamentary standards commissioner into cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg over an alleged breach of the MPs’ code of conduct.The announcement comes weeks after the Labour Party called on the independent commissioner, Kathryn Stone, to investigate the leader of House of Commons over claims that he failed to declare £6 millions in cheap loans from one of this own companies.Mr Rees-Mogg insisted at the time that the loans were declared in the proper way. “Saliston is 100 per cent owned by me,” his spokesman said. “This is declared clearly in the Commons register and to the Cabinet Office.”Show latest update

1638370546New poll: 55 per cent in favour of Scottish independenceMore than half of voters in Scotland are in favour of independence from the UK, according to a new poll.An IpsosMori survey found 55 per cent of respondents said they would vote “Yes” in any future referendum against 45 per cent who would not.Ipsos said support for breaking away from the UK is 5 percentage points higher than it was in early May.
Matt Mathers1 December 2021 14:551638369946Ministers risk ‘endangering’ civil servants unless home working becomes default, union warnsMinisters risk a “dereliction of duty” unless they move to make working from home the default position for civil servants where they can in a bid to combat the spread of the omicron Covid variant, Whitehall’s biggest union has warned.
My colleagues Simon Murphy and Anna Isaac report: Matt Mathers1 December 2021 14:451638369346PM: Pushback plans branded unlawful will go ahead despite drowningsControversial plans to “push back” refugee boats in the Channel will go ahead, despite 27 deaths last week and mounting legal challenges, Boris Johnson has vowed.Our deputy politics editor Rob Merrick reports: Matt Mathers1 December 2021 14:351638368677Scottish Tory leader hit by standards probeScottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has also been added to the list of MPs that are under investigation by Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone.The MP for Moray revealed last month that he had referred himself to the commissioner after failing to declare thousands of pounds in outside earnings from his second job as an MSP and third job as a football referee.Like cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mr Ross is now being investigated over “registration of an interest under category one of the Guide to the Rules (Employment and Earnings)”.Matt Mathers1 December 2021 14:241638368108Rape victims demoralised by ‘distressing’ justice system delaysRape victims are “lucky” if their case is heard in court within four years, lawyers have warned MPs.MPs were told complainants get demoralised and “drop out of the system” as they wait for police to charge suspects.Senior barristers and solicitors told the Commons Home Affairs Committee today that a lack of resources could be major factors behind the low prosecution rates for rape.Kirsty Brimelow QC, vice chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “There are increasing delays which, I have to say, is very depressing and distressing.“Having seen – in certainly my early years of practice – how cases involving complainants and sexual offences will be expedited, now you’re lucky if the case is heard within four years between complaint and trial. And it’s not all due to do with backlog.”Figures published earlier this month showed police forces in England and Wales had recorded the highest number of rapes and the second highest number of sexual offences in a 12-month period.But separate data shows the proportion of suspects being taken to court had fallen to a record low, and remains the lowest for rape cases.Lamiat Sabin1 December 2021 14:151638367510France urges EU to act against Britain in fishing disputeFrance’s minister for Europe has called on the EU to take “European measures” against Britain if there is no resolution to the post-Brexit row over fishing licences by 10 December.The European Commission has said the dispute must be settled by that date as it upped the pressure on the UK in the negotiations.Clement Beaune said today that it was not a Franco-British dispute, but one between the whole of the EU and the UK.Mr Beaune said that French punitive measures – such as a ban on British trawlers landing their catches in French ports and tighter customs checks to hamper cross-Channel trade – remain “on the table” if a deal cannot be reached.On the potential ban by the French, he added: “It’s one of the possible options but it’s better, to be honest, to have European measures.”France’s maritime minister Annick Girardin also warned of European retaliatory measures, telling the Ouest France newspaper on Tuesday that “London is testing the solidarity of the European Union.”Lamiat Sabin1 December 2021 14:051638366608Schools to remain open for rest of term, says ministerThe government plans to keep schools open until the Christmas holidays, an education minister has said.Children’s minister Will Quince said it was “deeply regrettable” that some school nativity plays have been cancelled but that the government wants to “see schools stay open.”The minister told MPs in the Commons Education Committee: “That is certainly our plan.”His comments came after Justin McCamphill – NASUWT teaching union’s national official for Northern Ireland – called on schools to cancel mass gatherings over Christmas amid staff shortages caused by Covid.Mr McCamphill had also said that the government may need to consider a circuit-breaker closure of Northern Ireland’s schools to stop the spread of the virus.Face masks are now being recommended in communal areas of England’s secondary schools and colleges following the emergence of the new omicron variant of Covid.Lamiat Sabin1 December 2021 13:501638366185Low-income Scots could get blanket winter payment from 2022About half a million households in Scotland will be given “certainty” in being able to pay for heating with a £50 payment every winter.The Scottish Government is aiming to replace the current UK-wide Cold Weather Payment from next winter.The current UK benefit pays £25 for each seven-day period where the temperature is forecast to be below freezing.Under the new scheme, households receiving income-related benefits would automatically receive £50 every winter regardless of whether temperatures drop below zero for a set amount of time.Social Security Minister Ben Macpherson said: “Although Cold Weather Payments have been a valuable support for some during periods of very cold weather, there have been some years when hardly any payments have been made at all by the UK Government.“If winters, as predicted, are due to become generally wetter and warmer then this may also reduce the numbers of Cold Weather Payments in the future. We want people to have certainty about receiving a payment.”Last week, experts told MSPs that around 100,000 more households are expected to go into fuel poverty – and that more than 600,000 households are currently estimated to be struggling to pay for heating.Lamiat Sabin1 December 2021 13:431638364559Full report: PM refuses to deny No 10 held Christmas party during lockdown last yearBoris Johnson has refused to deny there was a Christmas party held at No 10 last year while lockdown curbs were in place – but claimed all Covid rules were followed.My colleague Adam Forrest has more details below: Matt Mathers1 December 2021 13:151638363258Watch: Starmer accuses Johnson of ‘taking British public for fools’Starmer accuses Johnson of ‘taking the British public for fools’Matt Mathers1 December 2021 12:54 More