Markus Andrews

Labour is demanding an ethics investigation into health secretary Sajid Javid over share options which he holds in a US artificial intelligence company.Mr Javid holds options worth a total of around £45,000, after working for C3.ai for eight months while out of office between October 2020 and June this year.In a letter to the prime minister’s ethics adviser Christopher Geidt, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the shares created a potential conflict of interest, because Mr Javid had promoted the use of AI in the NHS.The health secretary said in September that AI technology could help cut waiting lists in the health service.And in October he said that artificial intelligence had the potential to be an “incredible force for good” in spending up diagnoses and tackling racial inequalities in the treatment offered by the NHS.Ms Rayner said: “The health secretary has shares in an AI firm. The health secretary uses his position to promote the benefits of AI and sets out plans to invest in AI, which will benefit people with shares in AI firms.“This is a clear conflict of interest and breach of the Ministerial Code.”According to his entry in the Register of MPs’ Interests, Mr Javid earned a salary equivalent to £151,835 per annum for 10-12 days’ work annually providing “advice on the global economy, geo-politics and market opportunities” to California-based AI software provider C3.ai.His package also included an option for 666.7 common shares per month, which he said had a current market value of £45,000. The shares could be expected to increase in value if C3.ai was successful in marketing its AI products.The tech firm, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2020, lists “healthcare” and “government” on its website among nine industry sectors listed on its website as areas of operation.In her letter, Ms Rayner told Lord Geidt that the Department of Health’s announcement that it was planning to spend taxpayers’ money on AI “could clearly be perceived as beneficial to an AI company”.The ministerial code states that “ministers must scrupulously avoid any danger of an actual or perceived conflict of interest between their ministerial position and their private financial interest”, she pointed out.And she asked Lord Geidt: “Can you please advise on whether this case represents a conflict of interest or a perceived conflict of interests between the health secretary’s ministerial position and his private financial interest and what steps you will take?”A Department of Health spokesperson said: “The Secretary of State has acted in line with the ministerial code and has properly declared these share options in the usual way.”A source close to Mr Javid said that he started the process of divesting the share options when he became health secretary in June, following the unexpected resignation of Matt Hancock. More

The European Union was awaiting a firm counterproposal from the United Kingdom on Friday to ease a standoff over how to deal with Britain’s departure from the bloc. Both sides are fighting over differences in how to regulate trade in Northern Ireland which is part of the U.K. but also belongs to the EU’s huge single market in a Byzantine deal that proved essential in the Brexit divorce negotiations. Both sides recognize that deal is far from perfect and have been negotiating how to improve the movement of goods to Northern Ireland from Britain without giving London unfettered backdoor passage to the market of the 27-nation EU. While EU Brexit negotiator Maros Sefcovic said there was a “change in tone” for the better in London, he added that last month’s EU compromise proposal to cut down on red tape between Britain and Northern Ireland needed to be reciprocated. “We hope that action will follow the words,” he said Friday. His UK counterpart, David Frost insisted that “there are a large number of issues that need to be fixed if we’re going to resolve this problem,” adding that “there are still really quite significant gaps.” Negotiations have dragged on for a month, with Britain threatening to suspend parts of the legally binding divorce agreement between the two sides if no solution is found soon. Frost said triggering an emergency break clause known as Article 16 remains a real possibility. “If we can’t safeguard positions on the problems in Northern Ireland through negotiations, then Article 16 safeguards are there as well,” he said. Article 16 lets either side suspend portions of the Brexit agreement in extreme circumstances. A move by Britain to use it would trigger EU retaliation and could spiral into a trade war between the 27-nation bloc and its increasingly estranged former member.Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. and shares a border with EU member Ireland. Under the Brexit deal agreed before the U.K. left the EU at the end of 2020, it remains inside the bloc’s tariff-free single market for goods to ensure there is an open border on the island of Ireland — a key pillar of Northern Ireland’s peace process. That has created a new customs border in the Irish Sea for goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K., even though they are part of the same country.It also has brought red tape for businesses and angered Northern Ireland’s British Unionists, who say the checks undermine Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K. and destabilize the delicate political balance on which peace rests. More

Brussels has warned the UK government that its Brexit trade deal is “intrinsically linked” to enforcing the Northern Ireland border protocol.Ahead of crunch talks on Friday Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s Brexit chief said: “One cannot exist without the other”. The comments raise the stakes because the UK has been threatening to suspend the Northen Ireland agreement, which it wants renegotiated on more favourable terms.But Mr Sefcovic’s warning is a hint that Brussels and EU capitals might choose to suspend the separate trade deal between the UK and EU if Britain pulls the plug.The Trade and Cooperation Agreement or TCA guarantees UK businesses effectively zero tariffs when trading with the EU – cushioning some of the self-inflicted economic blow of Brexit.But on his way into talks in Brussels Lord Frost, the EU’s Brexit chief, defended the possibility of using Article 16 to suspend the protocol.”Obviously, our preference is to see if we can find a negotiated agreement, but if we can’t, Article 16 remains on the table,” he told reporters outside the venue.He added: “There are a large number of issues that need to be fixed if we are going to resolve this problem. That’s obviously part of the discussion, but there are still really quite significant gaps between us.”Lord Frost said the UK and EU had not “managed” to discuss the issue of the European Court of Justice “very much so far”. The UK wants the EU’s top court to have no role in overseeing disputes in the agreement, despite having signed up to it previously.He told reporters: “I wouldn’t expect any breakthroughs on anything today. But there are some issues that we might make better progress on than others.”The EU presented a package of measures to cut paperwork around the deal and also to reduce spot checks – but the UK says that the plan does not go far enough.Loyalists and unionists are concerned that the protocol is disrupting trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The protocol was introduced to keep the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland open after Brexit.Because Britain as a whole is leaving the EU’s single market and customs union, trade checks would have been required over the Irish border if no solution was found.Speaking via video link ahead of the talks, Mr Sefcovic told an event at the Brexit Institute at Dublin City University: “Settling the divorce has always been and remains a precondition for our future relationship.”It was on this basis that we negotiated, concluded and ratified the trade and co-operation agreement on Christmas Eve last year.”The two agreements are intrinsically linked, one cannot exist without the other.” More

A former Irish leader has been urged to apologise after he said loyalists had “no clue” about the UK-EU Northern Ireland Brexit deal.Ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed that people in “east Belfast and the ghettos and the areas where you are likely to get trouble” criticised the protocol without knowing how it worked.Mr Ahern, who led the Republic’s government from 1997 to 2008, was key in the Good Friday Agreement peace process.Speaking at the Brexit Institute of Dublin City University on Thursday he said some loyalists saw the agreement as the “Dublin government taking over”.But East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson said the comments were “demeaning and degrading” to his constituents. Mr Robinson, from the Democratic Unionist Party, opposes the protocol and wants the UK government to suspend it. The DUP has in turn being accused of whipping up anger against the protocol – which enjoys majority support from the Northern Irish public, according to most polls.”To associate east Belfast with a ghetto and suggest loyalists are not able to understand the protocol is demeaning and degrading,” the DUP MP said.”People in my constituency who can’t get their Amazon parcels from another part of the United Kingdom well understand the impact of the protocol.”Rather than belittling those who oppose the protocol, Bertie Ahern should seek to understand why not a single elected unionist in Northern Ireland supports the protocol.”The protocol was introduced to keep the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland open after Brexit. Because Britain as a whole is leaving the EU’s single market and customs union, trade checks would have been required over the Irish border if no solution was found.The protocol effectively keeps NI in the single market and customs union, but as a result this means some extra controls are added to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Though the plan was negotiated by the UK government, the same politicians who came up with it – David Frost and Boris Johnson – are now trying to renegotiate it.The pair are threatening to trigger Article 16 of the protocol, effectively suspending it, if they do not get their way. The EU has come forward with some proposals to loosen the controls, reducing paperwork and spot checks – though the UK says this is not enough. More

Hungary’s opposition leader wants to restore his country’s frayed ties with the West — and also has a message for American fans of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “Let me state very strongly for all Americans that to be a part of Putin’s fan club doesn’t make you a conservative,” said Peter Marki-Zay, a self-described conservative Christian running against Orban in next year’s elections, in an interview with The Associated Press. “Orban is betraying Europe, Orban is betraying NATO, Orban is betraying the United States,” he said.Marki-Zay, the 49-year-old mayor of the small city of Hodmezovasarhely, is leading a diverse coalition of six opposition parties aiming to defeat Hungary’s hard-line leader and his ruling Fidesz party in parliamentary elections scheduled for April. If elected, Marki-Zay says, he will reverse the closer ties Orban has pursued with autocracies in Russia and China, and improve his country’s relations with the European Union and other Western allies.“I still stand for Western values, and we cannot accept a corrupt thug … who betrays Western values and who is now a servant of Communist China and Russia,” he said. Governing Hungary with a two-thirds majority in parliament since 2010, the right-wing populist Orban and his anti-immigration party have dominated the fractured opposition in all subsequent elections, and cemented their power through changes to election laws, stacking institutions with loyalists and dominating large portions of Hungary’s media. While Orban’s critics in Europe have warned of an alarming erosion of democracy in Hungary as its relations with EU have frayed, some of his policies — like his staunch rejection of refugees and generous financial support to families with children — have attracted glowing praise from right-wing American commentators. Fox News host Tucker Carlson broadcast from Budapest for a week this summer, and praised Orban’s migration policy and rejection of the EU’s liberal mainstream. Rod Dreher, senior editor of U.S. publication The American Conservative, spent several months in Budapest this year on a fellowship financed by a right-wing think tank close to Orban’s government. But Marki-Zay, a devout Catholic with seven children and a former Fidesz voter himself, says that despite Orban’s proclamations of building an illiberal “Christian democracy” in the Central European country, he considers the leader neither a Christian, nor a conservative, nor even a democrat. “Real conservatives consider Christianity to be something very much (the) opposite” of Orban’s policies, he said. Orban’s party has accused Marki-Zay of being a left-wing candidate posing as a conservative, a charge stemming from his cooperation with several left-of-center parties in the opposition coalition. Last week, Marki-Zay travelled to Brussels where he met with some key EU figures — spurring further accusations that he aims to undermine Hungary’s sovereignty in favor of adhering to EU dictates.A fierce critic of the 27-member bloc, which Hungary joined in 2004, Orban has compared EU membership to the Soviet domination Hungary endured for 40 years, and has pursued close diplomatic and economic ties with China and Russia.But agreements with those countries on major investment projects have both weakened Hungary’s geopolitical position and come at the expense of Hungarian taxpayers, Marki-Zay says.He cites as an example a roughly $2.3 billion Chinese-led project to modernize the railway between the capital cities of Hungary and Serbia, part of China’s Belt and Road global trade initiative that is financed by the Hungarian state primarily from a loan from a Chinese state bank. Another project — a no-bid contract awarded to Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom to expand a Hungarian nuclear power plant at an estimated cost of over $11 billion — is “against the national interests of Hungary,” he said.Sitting in his office in Hodmezovasarhely’s city hall, the candidate wears a blue ribbon on the lapel of his jacket, something he said represents an “anti-corruption fight” against the kind of governance that has plagued Hungary since its democratic transition from Communism in 1990. Hungary has become a “country with no consequences,” he said, where corruption “has been totally centralized and it’s absolutely a part of the system. It is now organized by the government itself.” If elected, Marki-Zay says he will immediately join the European Public Prosecutors Office, an independent EU anti-fraud and corruption body, and set up a domestic anti-corruption office in Hungary.“Most people in Hungary recognize that there is a corruption problem,” he said. “I really hope that in the last four years I have already proven here in Hodmezovasarhely that not all politicians are corrupt.”Running as an independent outsider with no past ties to Hungary’s liberal opposition parties, Marki-Zay has vowed to tackle corruption even-handedly, whether it was committed by those currently in government or by the earlier Socialist-led governments that are now in opposition. Two of the parties in his own coalition have been associated with past corruption cases.Recent polling shows the six-party coalition in a tight race with Orban and his party, suggesting the race will be the closest since Fidesz took power 11 years ago. Still, Marki-Zay says a media environment which favors the ruling party and an imbalance in financial resources will mean elections next year will not be free and fair. In an effort to safeguard next year’s ballot, the opposition coalition has launched a campaign to recruit 20,000 civilian vote counters to be present at every polling station in the country. While Marki-Zay expects a highly competitive campaign, he believes that his conservative bona fides and political outsider status can mobilize both disaffected Fidesz supporters and undecided voters who are turned off by corruption.“We have to get the truth to even the last house in the last village,” he said. “We have to give them true and credible information that they were robbed.” More

Priti Patel is to proscribe the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation after denouncing it as “fundamentally and rabidly antisemitic”.Hamas’ military wing has been proscribed in the UK since 2001, but in an announcement on Friday the home secretary will say the entirety of the Palestinian group should now be banned. It means supporters of the group will face up to 10 years in prison under the Terrorism Act.Setting out details in a speech on security at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, a conservative think tank which was previously aligned with Donald Trump on a number of his presidential policies, Ms Patel will say the current listing of Hamas as distinct political and militant wings “creates an artificial distinction between various parts of the organisation”.She will say: “Hamas has significant terrorist capability, including access to extensive and sophisticated weaponry, as well as terrorist training facilities, and it has long been involved in significant terrorist violence. But the current listing of Hamas creates an artificial distinction between various parts of the organisation – it is right that the listing is updated to reflect this.“This is an important step, especially for the Jewish community. Hamas is fundamentally and rabidly antisemitic. “Antisemitism is an enduring evil which I will never tolerate. Jewish people routinely feel unsafe – at school, in the streets, when they worship, in their homes, and online. “This step will strengthen the case against anyone who waves a Hamas flag in the United Kingdom, an act that is bound to make Jewish people feel unsafe. “Anyone who supports or invites support for a proscribed organisation is breaking the law. That now includes Hamas in whatever form it takes.”However the move will put further strain on efforts to build the conditions for a permanent agreement between the Israeli government and the Hamas-run government in Gaza towards a two-state solution, which the British government has said it is committed to.Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which were opposed by Hamas, broke down in 2014. Hamas does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and has fought three wars with it since taking control of Gaza. Rare Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2021 were postponed and the last poll, held in 2006, saw Hamas win a landslide victory.Proscription makes it a criminal offence to belong to an organisation in the UK or overseas, or even to express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a such a group.Wearing clothing that suggests an individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation, or publishing an image of an item of clothing, flag or logo that would lead to the same conclusion, is also a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. More

The government spent more than £1m of taxpayer money in seven years on bear fur hats for the military, official figures show.From 2014 to 2019, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) bought a total of 891 caps for the Queen’s Guard, according to data given to animal-rights organisation Peta, which said up to 1,000 bear could have died in the process of making the hats.Ceremonial bearskin hats are made from the skins of Canadian black bears, which are often suffer slow deaths after being shot, Peta says. It claims at least one bear is killed for each hat made – or more if a mother with cubs is targeted. The MoD purchases cost £1,076,149 in total over the seven years. The department told Peta that last year it bought 110 bearskin caps at a cost of £145,000. Previous purchases, according to Freedom of Information Act replies, were:2019: 92 caps, costing £127,4402018: 61 caps, costing £76,2062017: 172 caps, costing £201,0712016: 207 caps, costing £240,3822015: 122 caps, costing £149,3792014: 127 caps, costing £136,671A faux-fur company based in France, Ecopel, has offered to provide the MoD with artificial bear fur free of charge until 2030.As mayor of London six years ago, Boris Johnson said he would be open to using fake fur hats if it might “help save a few bears”, according to The Telegraph.During black bear hunts, up to one in seven escapes wounded and dies slowly from blood loss or starvation, Peta says.And if a nursing mother bear is killed, entire families die because the cubs cannot fend for themselves.Designer Stella McCartney has previously offered to create new faux fur hats for the MoD, but it’s believed her offer was declined.Peta senior campaigns manager Kate Werner said: “There is no excuse for the Ministry of Defence to continue funding the slaughter of black bears – and the prime minister must put a stop to it.“The humane, high-performing faux fur created by Ecopel gives a nod to tradition while preventing sensitive bears from being viciously slaughtered for their fur.”The organisation sent a person in dressed as a bear in the faux skin to Downing Street to call on the prime minister to make the switch.The Independent has asked the MoD whether it will take up the offer from Ecopel and to comment on the more than £1m spending.The department has said in the past: “Over the last 20 years there have been a number of trials of synthetic alternatives to bear pelts which have, to date, proved unsuccessful as nothing has matched the properties of the natural product. The Ministry of Defence does not buy bear pelts – only ceremonial caps.”Ecopel says its fabric looks and functions exactly like real bearskin.Buying real animal fur is still legal in the UK, even though the government has come under intense pressure to outlaw imports as fur farms are banned in Britain.Earlier this year ministers launched a call for evidence on the implications of a block on importing and selling real fur. More

Brexit red tape has caused a “severe” slump in the number of young people in Britain able to take advantage of seasonal work in the EU, travel industry leaders have said.Sector chiefs say the increased costs involved in hiring UK staff to work in bars, restaurants, hotels and resorts across Europe has resulted in jobs cuts for mostly young Britons.There has been a 75 per cent drop in British hospitality staff going to France for the winter season since 2018-19 – falling from 8,000 workers to just 2,000, according to a survey by Seasonal Businesses in Travel.The group, which represents Britain’s outbound travel sector, said the period had also seen a 95 per cent slump in British hospitality workers going to Austria.Travel chiefs have urged the government to consider agreeing a new youth mobility visa with the EU to help more young people to take advantage of seasonal work on the continent.“When people talk about labour shortages they usually think about empty shelves in the UK, but the outbound tourist industry has been severely impacted by these new barriers to hiring UK workers in European resorts,” said Charles Owen, managing director of European Pubs Limited.The pub chief, who is also director of the Seasonal Businesses in Travel group, said the post-Brexit struggles of the industry would lead to higher costs for British holidaymakers heading to the continent.Appearing before the UK Trade and Business Commission – the independent body monitoring the impact of the government’s trade deals – travel industry leaders also warned that young people were missing out on vital opportunities.Mr Owen said: “Not only will this dent our GDP, but it severely reduces opportunities for young people, for employment, experience and skills training. The government must make changes to the EU-UK trade deal to address this.”Labour MP Paul Blomfield, who chaired Thursday’s session of the UK Trade and Business Commission, urged the government to “listen to industry experts, and offer workable changes to the problems they caused for the tourism sector”.The former shadow Brexit minister, added: “While the government is falling over itself to offer emergency visas to address domestic labour shortages created by their Brexit deal, they are neglecting the interests of British workers who want to take up jobs in other European countries.”It comes as a top tourism expert claimed Brexit changes were partially to blame for a major slump in visitors to the UK, since EU citizens can no longer travel to the UK using their ID cards since 1 October.“That’s enormously important,” Tom Jenkins, chief executive of the European Tourism Association told CNN this week.“For a family of four, the logistical and cost implications of travelling to the UK become really prohibitive.”Meanwhile, Brexit minister Lord Frost has warned Brussels chiefs that they should not interpret his “reasonable tone” in recent talks to imply any softening of the UK’s position in a row over arrangements in Northern Ireland.Challenged in parliament over the percentage chance of success in negotiating changes to the protocol with the EU by Christmas, the cabinet minister said “somewhere between zero and a hundred”, as he declined to be drawn on giving a figure.Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland minister Alex Davies-Jones said the “last thing this country needs is a damaging trade dispute”.Senior Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael said the government’s failure to rule out triggering Article 16 before Christmas “risks catastrophic disruption”. More